Some call this Le Carre’s greatest novel. These people need to smoke less crack. What they really mean is that it’s not ‘just’ a spy novel, but a spy novel with daddy issues. Great, heaping masses of daddy issues. This is Le Carre’s most autobiographical novel, and my god but it shows.
The story is about a British spy who suddenly disappears, leaving his wife and his posting in Vienna. Very swiftly his employers begin to suspect he has been a double agent for decades. The novel has three strands; first, an account of where the spy has disappeared to; second, the text of a long letter about his life he is writing to his son; and third, the search of his wife and his employers to find him. Most of the novel is the letter, which is very much about his very tough childhood, with his conman father, and leads to the revelation of whether he is a double, a triple, or perhaps just a single agent.
To me it seemed kind of slow, with a bit too much repetition of the same themes: the loveless child, the danger of lying, etc. I guess in that way we can see it was based in life. In general one’s own life does seem to go on and on with the same rather boring themes you can’t seem to break free of. I guess that’s what therapy is for.