Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy #
Author John Le CarréDate August 22, 2026Rating 5/5
In the same vein as how Infernal Affairs had a lot to deal with the anxiety of Hong Kongers with the political climes switching to one ordained by the UK to China, this novel seems to frequently touch upon the anxiety that the British have near the twilight hours of their empire. Characters are very frequently reminiscing about the past and some appear to live in it.
Similar to the feeling of ennui around the state of England is the state of our main character, George Smiley, who also has been going through a rough spell in pretty much all aspects of his life, for quite a while though. Interestingly, while many of the other characters look back on this past time with much favor, Smiley seems to be broadly neutral about it. Part of this story is to me the ebb and flow of his personal life that comes in and out of focus throughout the novel.
At some point he says: “I have a theory which I suspect is rather immoral. Each of us use only a quantum of compassion. That if we lavish our concern on every stray cat, we never get to the centre of things.” There’s a string feeling of isolation throughout this story, even though there are plenty of characters around, everything feels so formal and distant, even when discussing the most pressing of matters. Many characters are dealing explicitly in their thoughts or implicitly through the plot with personal issues, but they’re rarely in the open, if they are, it’s mostly relegated to a sentence or two.
There’s a lot of thought here beyond the story of typical espionage or thriller novel, I’m excited to explore the rest of John Le Carré’s works.