James Parker writes about author John le Carré’s spy, George Smiley, and the coming film adaptation of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Smiley drops no one-liners, romances no tarot-card readers, roars no speedboats through the Bayou. Bond has his ultraviolence and his irresistibility, his famous “comma of black hair”; Smiley has his glasses, his habit of cleaning them with the fat end of his tie, and not much else. There is a cultivated blandness to him, a deliberate vagueness of outline that at times recalls G. K. Chesterton’s Father Brown—the little priest’s alertness to sin replaced, in Smiley’s case, by an extraordinary memory and a profound knowledge of “tradecraft.”
(via Mark Bertrand)
I had been thinking how cynical Le Carre’s recent novels have become. Then I watched the film version of his breakthrough 1961 novel The Spy Who Came in From The Cold last night and was surprised to see the same cynicism in his early works. Or at least I’d never noticed it in my previous readings of those works. What really struck me was at the end when they are escaping East Germany back to the west. He comments on how spies are not ideologues, but regular guys out to get their job done. They really don’t care who is right or wrong or who wins or loses, as long as they are on the winning side. He notes that a double agent had just a few days prior been to him evil and an enemy. Now he was evil and a friend.
I was surprised that the link went to Amazon’s current version of the book instead of James Parker’s article in The Atlantic.
One line describing the movie made me think it may have special interest to Lars. “a Scandinavian reboot has occurred”
Oops, my mistake.
Not only is Smiley the anti-Bond, but LeCarre is the anti-American.
I think his anti is much broader than America. He somehow manages to combine a general anti-West attitude with the typical British condescension towards the errant colonies.
However, he does spin intrigue better than anyone else except maybe Len Deighton. I’m currently in the middle of of A Most Wanted Man. I love the portrayal of surveillance, tradecraft and inter-agency politics. However, my guess is that I’m going to hate the ending which appears to be heading towards a fiasco destroying a number of innocent people perceived as terrorists in order for some western governments to claim a public victory in the war on terror.
I used to really enjoy following the adventures of George Smiley and Bernard Sampson. But nowadays I can’t find a good intrigue writer. Most of the current crop, W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, Vince Flynn, etc lean more towards action than intrigue. I also find their heroes to be anti-heroes. They are violent ruthless schmuks. But that’s ok because they’re our violent ruthless schmucks. They don’t achieve good, only victory.
Are there any good current intrigue writers whose characters display character?
Frederick Forsyth? I haven’t kept up to date with him, but I have liked many of his books. I actually collect copies of his “Christmas” book (written as a gift for his wife) The Shepherd. Every ten years or so, I recast the characters for a movie, because my young actors keep ageing out of the role of the pilot.
(and I have loved George Smiley since I first read Call for the Dead.)
Greybeard,
Do you really see Jack Ryan as a “violent ruthless schmuck”? The historian-turned-CIA-bureaucrat seemed particularly likable. I haven’t read Clancy recently, but the plot to smear Ryan with false claims of adultery in The Sum of All Fears seemed to mark him as at least quite competent when it came to intrigue. But then again, it was so subtle Ryan himself didn’t know what was going on, so maybe Clancy’s lack of intrigue expresses his view of political reality.
I can’t recall reading a Jack Ryan novel. It’s been some time since I tried Tom Clancy. I can’t even remember which of his novels I read and didn’t like. When I said that I was thinking more of Mitch Rapp.
The BBC did a series of radio plays covering all of John le Carre’s Smiley novels, with Simon Russell Beale as Smiley. They do a great job of capturing the paranoid and slightly seedy atmosphere of the novels. Well worth a listen.