The Freezing Fog of the Cold War : George Smiley 1
Despite being fascinated by espionage – the hidden stuff of it, and the psychology of those who do it, rather than the glitzy Bond aspects – I have somehow never read le Carré, nor seen or heard the TV or radio adaptations of his books.
This, then his first book, is my first outing too with George Smiley, loner, a quiet man, with a private life full of some sorrow, as his rather glamorous, society wife, an unlikely match, has done the more expected thing and run off with a glamour playboy.
Set in the late 50’s/early 60’s, as the Cold War was getting close to freeze point, this is as much a murder mystery as a spy thriller. Smiley recently interrogated a Foreign Office official who had come under the radar of possibly passing information to East Germany. He had been pretty certain that the man, Fennan, was in the clear, and had given him understanding that this would be his conclusion. The interview, an informal one, ended amicably on both sides. Except that Fennan then killed himself, and, even more curiously, posted a letter to Smiley on the same evening requesting a meeting.

The familiar face of George Smiley: Sir Alec Guinness in dry and wintry mode
I found this an interesting and atmospheric read, melancholy, cerebral and with nice and understated humour and a good evocation of time and place, as the following section shows. Smiley has gone to the dead man’s Surrey home, there to try and make sense of events, which do not quite seem to add up :
Merridale Lane is one of those corners of Surrey where the inhabitants wage a remorseless battle against the stigma of suburbia. Trees, fertilized and cajoled into being in every front garden half obscure the poky ‘Character dwellings’ which crouch behind them. The rusticity of the environment is enhanced by the wooden owls that keep guard over the names of houses, and by crumbling dwarves indefatigably posed over goldfish ponds. The inhabitants of Merridale Lane do not paint their dwarves, suspecting this to be a suburban vice
There are some interesting relationships which are clearly quite strong ones, but hidden behind an understated English reserve. Aiding Smiley in his investigations are a couple of professional colleagues, Mendel and Guillam, both of whom go the distance in what is after all, a dangerous pursuit – the hunting down of those who are prepared to kill in the service of a theory and philosophy. There is a subtext of masculine friendships, strong, clearly, but the emotional connections are not spoken about: this is stiff upper lip land, in time and in place. ‘Feeling’ language belongs to Fennan’s widow, Elsa, a German refugee, survivor of the war :
it’s an old illness you suffer from, Mr Smiley………..and I have seen many victims of it. The mind becomes separated from the body; it thinks without reality, rules a paper kingdom and devises without emotion the ruin of its paper victims. But sometimes the division between your world and ours is incomplete; the files grow heads and arms and legs, and that’s a terrible moment, isn’t it. The names have families as well as records, and human motives to explain the sad little dossiers and their make-believe sins….The State is a dream too, a symbol of nothing at all, an emptiness, a mind without a body, a game played with clouds in the sky
There are obviously a lot of wheels within wheels plots to be unravelled, and the reader is in that rather enjoyable place where almost everyone might come under some kind of suspicion. Histories – both personal and the history of conflicts between states and ideologies are under investigation.

James Mason in Sidney Lumet’s The Deadly Affair
This was filmed as ‘The Deadly Affair, directed by Sidney Lumet, and starring James Mason, Simone Signoret and Maximilian Schell, it presumably takes some liberties, not least of which is the renaming of George Smiley as Dobbs
Despite liking Cold War stuff and having discovered Eric Ambler recently, I’ve never read any Le Carre. I obviously should, especially as I adore Alex Guiness!
I love Ambler more than le Carre, I have to admit. I found this very interesting, but Ambler is a different world – it’s also, the writing at an earlier time, and Ambler was of the left, and seemed to be seeing things others weren’t, as the Second War approached. Unfair to judge after only one le Carre, it’s more cerebral, whereas Ambler has the whiff of the Balkans, the Ottoman Empire, and some characters who are more fantastic
Funnily enough I bought this recently, mainly because it was going cheap on the kindle. It sounds as if I made a good choice – I do love an atmospheric mystery!
Ha Ha Jacqui – me too! someone who always keeps tabs on making sure my TBR goes up and up sent me an email to say the first 3 le Carre’ were cheap on Kindle. She is a big le Carre fine, so it seemed a good opportunity to try. This one is SHORT as well – I gather he got more verbose, complex and lengthy later, but short was good enough for me
Ha, ha indeed. I succumbed to the exact same offer. All three for less than £3.00, it was impossible to resist! I think I read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold as a youngster, but that was so long ago I can hardly remember! Glad to hear that this landed so well with you.
Le Carre is having an amazing revival . I mistakenly thought he was an airport novelist but he is actually a great, great writer. All the Smiley novels are great but my favourite is The Honourable Schoolboy, perhaps for its unusual Hong Kong setting.
Well, Alastair, the reason I have never read him until now was because I had made the same assumption. This first book immediately disproved that – or, perhaps we read better things in airports than I supposed! I will progress on, and get further acquainted
This sounds delightful. I have not read Le Carre before but a mystery that is atmospheric is definitely a good choice.
I shall certainly read more of him, Resh
I only read my first Le Carre in the last few years (A Perfect Spy) and like you, found it a surprisingly quiet, melancholy read. I’ve never read Ambler but from the comments I clearly should!
Ambler is wonderful, and I re-read favourites. I’ve reviewed 2 or 3 on this site. I have an affinity for Balkan/Ottoman Empire settings which Ambler fills beautifully. I like also the fact he concentrates on ordinary people (not professional spies) who happen to get caught up in what is happening – it’s an easier identification probably, for the average reader unlikely to be recruited into the Secret Service
You have some treats in store if this was your first Le Carre. No-one writes about that period when espionage was rife quite as well as he does
That’s great to know, Bookertalk
Le Carre wrote for the thinking person. Read carefully and don’t expect his world of spies to be in any way glamorous or over the top exciting.
The absorption, to my mind, is precisely because of the lack of glamour