The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

A powerful novel on the human condition.

Classic spy novel. Dark imagery, bleak atmosphere, moral uncertainties and a great twist at the end.

Prescient! The lengths the "good guys" will go to save a Nazi because he is useful.

I had the ending spoiled for me by the foreword/introduction lol but still I was hanging onto every turn. The spycraft plays out through interviews and careful studying of interrogators' reactions to new information and gentle application of feigned outrage. It dawns on you how manufactured it all begins to feel, with The Plan having come together likely in front of a great and cozy fireplace, and everyone Leamas meets is a mouthpiece who represents something or someone else, who is going through the motions of procedure in dealing with a defector and reports to a higher up.

Somebody else, unseen, possibly known, miles away, is going to make a call (or already has) that will determine what happens next. Make no mistake, the events are happening whether you like it or not, and eventually you accept how helpless everyone really is.

You wonder whereabouts you've been dropped into the plan, near the beginning or the tail end (it matters because you thought you were there from the start but you don't know a damn thing by design), if the characters you are following have been penciled in for obsolescence and destruction, and you can only hope our protagonist and his beau (and the ruthless interrogator who was actually right all along) get thrown clear from the pachinko machine in a deus ex twist because you know it's going to get rough for them.

Two great lorries smash into a small car.

A cool, grey-coloured glimpse into the depths of a grinder.

Very boring. The kind of thing only a severely emotionally constipated man would like.

Maybe in the 60s the idea of a callous and morally ambiguous spy agency was daring, but my reaction was something like “of course, why are you telling us something we would assume already.”

There was nothing interesting about the prose, and the characters, especially Liz, were wooden, as if Le Carre didn't believe women are people, or people are people.

I read somewhere that a good story should present the protagonist with two immoral choices, and the reader is interested in seeing how the protagonist will behave when pressed against the wall. There are no interesting choices here. Once Alec goes with the plan, he's a passive character and things happen to him. His humanity is supposed to be his downfall, but he's so inhumane to Liz that falls flat.

Not my usual taste, but encouraged to read it on a recommendation. Extremely tense, tight, and compelling; I quite honestly could not put it down. My only caveat is that the style of the writing itself is bleak and sparse. I must admit it suits the message and plot and characters well.

A particular favorite is the usage of appearance: Leamas’ actions and gestures are written in how they appear, without giving the obvious heavy-handed explanation that it is all for show. The reader wonders (well, I wondered) who was playing who.

I really liked Fiedler, unfortunately. The grim calculus of the final survivors was rather depressing, especially with the oft-recalled quote Fiedler made about tragedy.

Reading this makes me feel as if I am in the novel. I feel like I am the one attempting to digest and work out the ulterior motives at play.
HIs use of detachment from the ulterior motives of the ‘Circus' allows the reader to fully grasp the ‘left in the dark' attitude of the protagonist and Liz. The presentation of those on the other side as friendly and comrades presents the disenfranchised agent perfectly.

One of my favourites, Le Carré does it again.

I really do not have much to say about this spy thriller. It was exciting to see how the story fleshed itself out, but the relationship between Leamas and how it ultimately ended up really hit me in the heart.

// A British spy named Alex Leamas must go on one last mission during the height of the Cold War. //

This story has a lot going on. It has through line plots, counter-plots, back-stabbing, and political posturing to name just a few. For me, it was exciting to read how spy's question spy's who are undercover and cannot unveil who they really are or what they know. It was a cat and mouse game of words. I was expecting something like one of my favorite movies The Professional, but what I got was something more akin to My Dinner with Andre where they talk about counter intelligence other than anecdotes about life. That is not a bad thing, its just that some of the chapters felt like info-dumps and I would have liked a bit more buildup.

// “Intelligence work has one moral law—it is justified by results.” //

I feel like I should have read the first two books in the series. Maybe that is where I was missing some of the pertinent information pertaining to the spy network. But it was pretty good. I can definitely see why it's considered a classic. I'll work my way backwards with the series in the future.

──∗ ⋅◈⋅ ∗──Extra

I've always heard people rave about le Carré. They were right.

To think he wrote this in 5 weeks.

Listened to on audiobook.

A large chunk of this book I thought it was an enjoyable time but a little standard and predictable and then the ending added a delightful thematic twist to everything that came before.

Great read.

The ultimate provider of the feeling: “ the plot thickens ”

Fallen on hard times
drinking what little he's paid
one last job, then rest.

I'm struck by how utterly gripping the novel ends up being in spite of the protagonist having very little agency. The gut-punch of an ending is expertly pulled off and yet—which is why I'm giving it four stars instead of five—also leaves the events of the novel feeling a little meaningless.

This is a masterpiece of the mystery genre, pure and simple. Few books have captured my attention as this work did - without even trying, at that.
Written by le Carré at the height of his literary prowess, it details the story of a British spy - whose last mission is to plant himself in Soviet-occupied East Germany, to get the Russian spy division head assassinated.
Although the plot looked trite and banal in the beginning, I slowly realized that reading this work was like peeling the layers off an onion - there's so much more to it than meets the eye at first glance. And boy oh boy, it didn't disappoint one bit.
Right when you think that you've got the plot all figured out, it turns out you didn't. The best part is, that action is sidelined in favor of dialogue, which I'm actually in favor of - two of the best scenes in the book were simply long dialogue chains.
TL;DR - deserves space on every reading shelf (or device) - this is the tour de force of an unparalleled writer, and it (deservedly) holds its place amongst the classics. Must read.

3.5
Reading this book made two things very clear for me:
1. This is a landmark novel wherein LeCarre elevated what a spy thriller can be
2. No matter how brilliant a spy thriller is, they are just not my thing

I borrowed this from a friend because I mentioned a recent interest cold war history and wanted to read a classic cold war story, and when he offered this book, it seemed right on the mark. I recognized LeCarre's name, and reading the introduction, I learned that he was himself a British spy during the cold war, so it was definitely a good recommendation.
I don't think it's an exaggeration to say he's the Tolkien of spy thrillers. If you've ever seen an unusually good spy movie, chances are it was based on one of his books. This book is probably the best book of this kind that I've ever read. The twist at the end doesn't just surprise you (and because this style has been mimicked for 60 years, it might not surprise you at all) but it also makes you think. It makes a powerful statement about perspectives of good and evil, and questions the concepts of whether ends can justify means.
It was a great read and very cool.
Why am I rating it less than 4 Stars then? Because on a personal level, I just get uninterested in descriptions of espionage. Reading what's essentially transcripts of a fictional interrogation, interview and/or court proceeding never appealed to me as a reader. I find some of the games of guessing the whodunnit or the hidden scheme to be amusing, but I never feel engaged imaginatively or emotionally like I do with other genres.
It's an objective 5 Star book, and I really enjoyed it, but it's just not my style.

DISCLAIMER: I listened to this on the Libby app through the Library, which listed this as an unabridged audiobook, however it was actually a three hour BBC radio adaptation miniseries. I'm still going to count this as read, haha.

This was well produced with several different voice actors, including Brian Cox in the lead role, giving great performances. It was a neat way to experience the story.

I thought it was a bit slow to start and I'm not sure I was following all the setup as well as I should have been, but once the story goes into full intrigue mode it had me hooked. Each new piece of information revealed keeps you changing your mind as to how things will resolve. The book also raises some broader political and moral questions, asking how far is too far for the greater good.

I'll probably try to read some more le Carré in the future, maybe even another BBC production!

I feel like I have no idea what really went on in this, but I liked what I could follow... Very twisty and spy-y. (Also, the whole time I just kept thinking of Fry & Laurie skits like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkKSRPOe72M)

Fantastic espionage book. The pace builds steadily, with a subtle suspense growing relentlessly in the background, and then all of a sudden it takes off like a shot. This book should be read on an express train, preferably one traveling through Germany or another country touched by the Iron Curtain. Highly recommend.

It was ok. It was a decently interesting story, with well written action, but most of the value of the book for me is in the connection to Mad Men. I thought there was a bit too much deliberation on the whole situation as well(the repetitive testimony mostly).

Pure nostalgie.

Vroeger thuis stond het verzamelde werk van John Le Carré (en Len Deighton en Ludlum en Ken Follett en Tom Clancy en alles en alles) in de bibliotheek, en ik heb ze allemaal gelezen.

En natuurlijk blijft The Spy Who Came in from the Cold overeind, zie dat van hier. Het speelt zich allemaal af in een wereld die ondertussen al zó ver weg en lang geleden is dat het even goed fantasy zou kunnen zijn of science fiction, maar behalve dat is er niet veel veranderd.

Er zijn goede mensen en er zijn slechte mensen, er is een enorm overgrote meerderheid mensen die noch goed noch slecht zijn maar gewoon min of meer hun werk doen. En er zijn mensen die door de wereld vermalen worden, pionnen in een spel dat ze niet controleren, en waar ze nauwelijks het bestaan van kunnen bevatten.

Spannend boek, dat wel. En aangeraden.

Some found the conclusion of this novel disappointing. I, on the other hand, enjoyed the finale. This is a dubious, twisting tale of betrayal, mistrust, deception, and offensive espionage. Simple yet intricate, all while avoiding wildly esoteric elements. John le Carré in fine form.

A very enjoy full read. Gripping from the first page to the last, well written and even though it was written quite some time ago, it didn't loose any of it over the years.

The move is very close to this book and I can also recommend that one too.

Brutal, crisp, the definitive spy novel and deservedly so.

Book Review: The Spy Who Came in from the Cold: A George Smiley Novel - This is a classic spy novel. Written in 1963 by an author that was actually a spy at the time, it changed the way spy novels were written. It is a classic double (or is that triple) cross novel. Part of the same series that the movie Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy is from.

Click through for the longer review on my blog http://bookwi.se/the-spy/