Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is one of, if not the best, spy novels of all time. Le Carre weaves together a story about figuring out who amongst the upper echelon of agents in British intelligence is a mole working for the other side. George Smiley, an agent recently forced out of the service, is tasked with figuring out who the mole is. His boss, Control, had narrowed down the list of suspects to 4 before he was also forced out and died.

It has everything you want in a spy novel: an agent working outside the law, suspense, intrigue, mystery, foreign operations gone wrong. The story itself is also worth noting. The way Le Carre manages to make all 4 suspects seem like the mole throughout the whole book, essentially combining 5 stories into 1, is amazing. The writing itself is also really in depth, which is something you want from this kind of book. It is not the easiest read, but I don’t think that is a bad thing. It adds to the realism that it seems like this was written by Smiley as an after-action report. You have to be able to figure out what the slang means and what they’re talking about. The book knows that not many people know about how the spy world works, but doesn’t hold your hand by explaining things. There are no paragraphs saying: “This is who Control is, and this is what he does and why it’s important,” which I think helps this book build its credibility. It also helps that Le Carre himself was a member of British intelligence.

This book is an interesting look at not only the inner workings of the spy world, but also the effects of that world on people. Trust and loneliness play a huge role in this book, which I can only imagine comes from Le Carre’s personal experience.

I can’t really write too much about it because that’ll give away the best parts I think, but rest assured, it’s worth your time to read. I’m putting it in my Hall of Fame because I liked it so much! The movie with Gary Oldman is also really good.

This book reminds me of Phil Jackson in a weird way, but instead of managing various personalities on the court, Le Carre is managing potential moles.