The Asian plot plunges into major stories of former Indochina, namely the fall of Cambodia to the Khmer Rouge and the conquest of Saigon by the North Vietnamese. Those chapters would have been a standalone novel for any other writer; le Carre works them into the depths of this single book beautifully, integrating tones, themes, and action. The books in the first category—and le Carré might still produce more of them, if he can only bring himself to distrust the kind of praise he has grown used to receiving—were written in the early and middle Sixties. They came out at the disreputably brisk rate of one a year. Call for the Dead (1961), A Murder of Quality (1962), The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963), and The Looking Glass War (1965) were all tightly controlled efforts whose style, characterization, and atmospherics were subordinate to the plot, which was the true hero. Above all, they were brief: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold is not even half the length of the ponderous whopper currently under review.

Spying/Terrorism Thriller - Yes Cloak & Dagger Plotlets: - stopping a saboteur/spy Kid or adult book? - Adult or Young Adult Book

Some fieldmen, and particularly the clever ones, take a perverse pride in not knowing the whole picture. Their art consists in the deft handling of loose ends, and stops there stubbornly.”

In the breaking of tragic news there is no transition. One minute a concept stands; the next it lies smashed, and for those affected the world has altered irrevocably” Smiley stared at an evening paper, not reading it. In a corner, not twelve feet from him, little Fawn had taken up the baby-sitter's classic position. His dark eyes smiled agreeably on the diners and on the doorway. He lifted his cup with his left hand, while his right idled close to his chest. Did Karla sit like this, Smiley wondered. Did Karla take refuge among the unsuspecting? The enigmatic, outwardly calm but inwardly stressed legend George Smiley is in the driver's seat of an espionage operation involving a wealthy Hong Kong businessman and his shadowy relations to mainland China. Flavor is added by setting the story in the waning days of the American involvement in the Vietnam War (or, as they prefer to call it, the American war). A new character, Jerry Westerby, for reasons of his own, is not fully sold on the goals of the operation, and further complexity arises from the Americans' attempts to intervene. At the time the book was written, Hong Kong was still a British territory and so Smiley has some leverage to stave the Americans off. Elizabeth Worthington, alias Lizzie, alias Lizzie Ricardo, alias Liese Worth – first, common-law wife of Tiny Ricardo; then, mistress of Drake Ko

He ultimately chose a kind of 'defector' story. So far so good. But to jazz it up he chooses a 'stringer' as the lead character (Westerby is a reporter, not a career spy). That's in addition to laying a new cornerstone in British spy fiction. You may as well consider it the most fully-formed, most mature, & most robust espionage novel yet produced in English literature. For that's what it is. This is the lone title to judge all others by. Previously, that torch was held by Somerset Maugham, or Greene, or LeCarre himself. But now, only Len Deighton's ' Game, Set, Match,' series (a trilogy, mind you) can favorably compare in depth and breadth to just this one, extraordinary LeCarre masterpiece. The second volume in le Carre's fabled Karla spy trilogy, The Honourable Schoolboy is a significant departure from the five Smiley books leading up to it. It's the longest of all the Smiley novels, and the only one where the action takes place outside of Europe. Everything I had heard about the source material suggests joy and wonder would await and, I’m pleased to report, that’s exactly what I have found so far. The Karla Trilogy is not a true trilogy but a marketing spin and this book proves it in more ways than one.

Damnably hard to keep that perky djini bottled, once he has known freedom. And I have seen the vast freedom retirement can bring.After Tinker, Tailor, le Carre's fans waited many years for the follow-up The Honourable Schoolboy. When I first read the book 35 (!) years ago I recall being a little disappointed that the book wasn't more Smiley-centric, but in retrospect le Carre's shift in focus from treachery within the Circus to the exotic East was what the series needed lest it choke on its own incestuous fog. The plot centers on people and events in Southeast Asia, and Hong Kong in particular. In the mid-1970s the area was a cauldron of conflict, pitting East against West, communism (both the Russian and Chinese varieties) against capitalism/democracy, and factions vs factions within individual countries. Ocr ABBYY FineReader 8.0 Ocr_converted abbyy-to-hocr 1.1.11 Ocr_module_version 0.0.14 Openlibrary_edition

In the aftermath, it is revealed that the British government (Lacon, Collins and Saul Enderby) made a deal behind the scenes where the CIA will interrogate Nelson alone, freezing out Smiley and the Circus. The success of the operation yields top promotions for Enderby, who becomes Chief, and Collins, who becomes Head of Operations. Smiley and Connie Sachs are retired and most of the older generation of Circus personnel are moved on. In the aftermath of the debacle, Peter Guillam contemplates the possibility that Smiley allowed the CIA to gain the upper hand so as to have himself removed as head of the Circus.Smiley instructs Westerby to become more proactive in his investigations, forcing Drake to move forward with his plans to extract Nelson. Frost, the banker from whom Westerby had acquired Ko's identity, is brutally murdered; Westerby and his Hong Kong colleague Luke are shown the mutilated body. Westerby travels on his own in and out of war-torn Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand searching for Ricardo, who tries to kill him. On his return to Hong Kong, Westerby finds Luke murdered in his apartment. He becomes increasingly stressed and begins to romantically obsess over Lizzie. Westerby's actions cause Smiley to change his plans. This the second in the Smiley/Karla trilogy - the only one (as far as I'm aware) that hasn't been dramatised and as such the least known of the three. Yet it is my favourite by far. Beautifully written and expertly plotted, it also takes a razor sharp scalpel to snobbery and the British class system, and has a pleasingly authentic and complex psychological dimension.