mikerickson reviewed Call for the Dead by John le Carré (George Smiley, #1)
Review of 'Call for the dead' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
He felt safe in the taxi. Safe and warm. The warmth was contraband, smuggled from his bed and hoarded against the wet January night. Safe because unreal: it was his ghost that ranged the London streets and took note of their unhappy pleasure-seekers, scuttling under commissionaires' umbrellas; and of the tarts, gift-wrapped in polythene. It was his ghost, he decided, which had climbed from the well of sleep and stop the telephone shrieking on the bedside table...
This was my first foray into espionage thrillers, which I recognize is a distinct subgenre of crime fiction. And it did feel distinct; there were no short and punchy sentences that you get with classic noir or the formulaic sequence of events you find in police procedurals. Instead I got a very measured and careful story, wherein it felt like no one wanted to make the first move out of fear of misstepping. …
He felt safe in the taxi. Safe and warm. The warmth was contraband, smuggled from his bed and hoarded against the wet January night. Safe because unreal: it was his ghost that ranged the London streets and took note of their unhappy pleasure-seekers, scuttling under commissionaires' umbrellas; and of the tarts, gift-wrapped in polythene. It was his ghost, he decided, which had climbed from the well of sleep and stop the telephone shrieking on the bedside table...
This was my first foray into espionage thrillers, which I recognize is a distinct subgenre of crime fiction. And it did feel distinct; there were no short and punchy sentences that you get with classic noir or the formulaic sequence of events you find in police procedurals. Instead I got a very measured and careful story, wherein it felt like no one wanted to make the first move out of fear of misstepping. This is in large part due to the protagonist, George Smiley, who is the very antithesis of the "shoot first, ask questions later" trope. This was a character that gamed out as many scenarios as he could before acting, but this practice didn't come off as tiring or excessive. Instead it felt like the appropriate response to the situation and it was refreshing to follow a character that wasn't creating his own problems.
I wouldn't say this story was dated so much as it was very much a product of its time, that being 1960's Britain. Lots of mentions of typewriters, East Germany, and characters waiting to receive phone calls on landlines allowed for a very different story than could be told in today's high-tech world. Instead of a 007 film with shootouts and explosions every other scene, this book felt more like watching a high-stakes chess match. I admit I did get a little confused at parts, but fortunately there was an in-fiction report at the end that Smiley typed up for his boss that explained all the major events in sequence. I'm still not a huge fan of British culture in general, but at least there wasn't too much chest-thumping and "God save the queen" and "Rule Britannia" being shoved down my throat here.
I typically shy away from series and franchises in favor of one-off books, but I'll likely give George Smiley more of my time in the future.
