A legacy of spies

264 pages

English language

Published Jan. 8, 2017

OCLC Number:: 1001287725

(2 reviews)

"The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book--his first Smiley novel in more than twenty-five years Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications. Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carre has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on …

"The undisputed master returns with a riveting new book--his first Smiley novel in more than twenty-five years Peter Guillam, staunch colleague and disciple of George Smiley of the British Secret Service, otherwise known as the Circus, is living out his old age on the family farmstead on the south coast of Brittany when a letter from his old Service summons him to London. The reason? His Cold War past has come back to claim him. Intelligence operations that were once the toast of secret London, and involved such characters as Alec Leamas, Jim Prideaux, George Smiley and Peter Guillam himself, are to be scrutinized by a generation with no memory of the Cold War and no patience with its justifications. Interweaving past with present so that each may tell its own intense story, John le Carre has spun a single plot as ingenious and thrilling as the two predecessors on which it looks back:The Spy Who Came in from the ColdandTinker Tailor Soldier Spy. In a story resonating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carre and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new"--

1 edition

markm reviewed A legacy of spies by John Le Carré

Review of 'A legacy of spies' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Would this book be as good if we didn’t know all that we do, if we hadn’t read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley’s People, and seen the TV series and the movie? I don’t know, but this new novel reminds us that Le Carré is a genius at infusing this and those novels with duplicity. Smiley’s Ann, every plot turn, every structural trick, moles, double agents. We are immersed in it, and we feel like everything depends on our spying, like all of philosophy must emanate from deception, and, to quote Robert Duvall’s character in A Civil Action, “the truth is at the bottom of a deep deep hole”. Among the theories of the origin of genus Homo’s oversized brain, I favor Darwin’s notion that it must be sexual selection, like the Peacock’s tail, but I also …

Would this book be as good if we didn’t know all that we do, if we hadn’t read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy, Smiley’s People, and seen the TV series and the movie? I don’t know, but this new novel reminds us that Le Carré is a genius at infusing this and those novels with duplicity. Smiley’s Ann, every plot turn, every structural trick, moles, double agents. We are immersed in it, and we feel like everything depends on our spying, like all of philosophy must emanate from deception, and, to quote Robert Duvall’s character in A Civil Action, “the truth is at the bottom of a deep deep hole”. Among the theories of the origin of genus Homo’s oversized brain, I favor Darwin’s notion that it must be sexual selection, like the Peacock’s tail, but I also like the idea that even if that is true, the idea that it evolved to tell stories and to deceive must play a part. We are able to read this novel easily, despite its complexity, and follow the changes in time, place, and point of view, but this is only possible because that’s how we think, at least to some degree, in everyday life. Old spy Peter Guillaum is called from retirement on his farm in Brittany back to England to face accusations about the real meaning of his activities before and during the action that make up the plot of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. He must mislead his interrogators, protect himself and protect his old friends. He is forced to descend through layers and layers of historical deception, in which he and his friends lied to the enemy, to the spies they were running, to other parts of their own organization, and to themselves. The climax is nothing much from a traditional plot point of view, but we get to revisit our old friend George Smiley and hear him tell us if there is a point to it all, and what it might be.

SlowRain reviewed A legacy of spies by John Le Carré

Review of 'A legacy of spies' on Goodreads

4 stars

Decades after the events of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, British Intelligence is being sued by descendents of two people who died during that operation. Peter Guillam, retired former agent and George Smiley's right-hand man, has been called in to make an accounting--and potentially serve as a convenient scapegoat.

Having read most of John le Carré's novels (the sole exception being his non-espionage The Naive and Sentimental Lover), I'd divide his oeuvre into four categories: the early works (1961-1968, 5 novels), the peak (1974-1989, 6 novels), the random works (1990-1999, 5 novels), and the activist works (2001-2013, 6 novels). The early works were a young novelist struggling to get noticed and find his niche and his voice. The peak was the time of his brilliance, and where most of his fans will find their favorite novel (mine is A Perfect Spy). The random works …

Decades after the events of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, British Intelligence is being sued by descendents of two people who died during that operation. Peter Guillam, retired former agent and George Smiley's right-hand man, has been called in to make an accounting--and potentially serve as a convenient scapegoat.

Having read most of John le Carré's novels (the sole exception being his non-espionage The Naive and Sentimental Lover), I'd divide his oeuvre into four categories: the early works (1961-1968, 5 novels), the peak (1974-1989, 6 novels), the random works (1990-1999, 5 novels), and the activist works (2001-2013, 6 novels). The early works were a young novelist struggling to get noticed and find his niche and his voice. The peak was the time of his brilliance, and where most of his fans will find their favorite novel (mine is A Perfect Spy). The random works were written after the Cold War ended and had various antagonists and were rather hit-or-miss in their quality. The activist works, a period he still is in, are more concerned with social issues, are still hit-or-miss as far as quality, and often casts the Americans as the indirect antagonist. A Legacy of Spies seems to be a combination of the peak and the activist works.

(For reference: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_le_Carr%C3%A9#Novels)

For long-time fans, we finally get closure--of a sort. We finally know what happens to Smiley, and we finally know what happened to Karla. We now know who that cyclist was at the start of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. We also get a whole lot more than we bargained for in that we never knew the backstory to and the backroom goings-on of that whole operation and its aftereffects. It makes for a much more intriguing story all round, as I've often felt that novel was overhyped.

The character of Peter is well-enough developed for the purposes of this story, and many fans will enjoy hearing this novel from his point of view. Much of the story is told in the form of him reading old case files, being interviewed by current intelligence officers, and his own reminiscing. The narrative voice le Carré has chosen is slightly less-developed than what he usually gives us, but I think that may be because this novel would have been too much of a jump in style if the readers had only read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold before this.

The purpose of this novel, however, is open to some debate. When I first heard about it and its premise, I was skeptical. It seemed to me le Carré was just drumming up interest in his backlist. What better way to get a whole new generation of readers interested in his "Smiley" franchise? Also, le Carré's sons are movie producers and have already made several of his novels into movies and a TV miniseries. This novel could also lead to renewed interest in remaking the movies that were previously made, as well as greenlighting ones that haven't yet been made. After reading A Legacy of Spies, I still think this to be the case, it's just that the novel was an enjoyable read in the process.

(As a side note, the word "legacy" has an antiquated meaning of "a body of persons sent on a mission". That certainly gives the title A Legacy of Spies another meaning, as we get to see a number of old friends from past le Carré novels.)

I'd say this is a novel for the die-hard fans of his peak, and one they've been waiting a long time for. It is not--I repeat, NOT--a novel for new readers as they'd be lost as to what is going on. A working knowledge of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a prerequisite. Plus, there are spoilers, not only for that novel, but also Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I would probably give this one a 3.5 rating and say it's weaker than all the others from his peak, but I still enjoyed reading it and am glad that I did. It was great to be back in the hands of a master of Cold War espionage fiction. And, like the ending of Smiley's People (my second-favorite of his novels), we're left wondering if their mission was justified in the end. Brilliant, Mr. le Carré. Brilliant.

EDIT: I feel somewhat vindicated about my suspicion of the genesis of the novel.

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/john-le-carre-why-i-brought-back-guillam-smiley-and-the-cold-war-20170912-gyfjb5.html