Welcome back. And, while that is true to a certain extent, and even plays a crucial role in the plot, it isn't a scathing polemic on the matter. John le Carré at his home in London, 2019. When I was reading this book, a friend asked me what I thought of it. – le Carré once again pulls back the curtain on the enigmatic and Matryoshka-like ways of the spy trade.

John le Carre is one of those authors that I have been reading for years, and spy novels he offers stay with me for many years. Yet, living a shadowy life defined by danger, heartlessness and immorality, Nat has survived as a decent, good-hearted man. His new novel contains several delicious set pieces of this kind, and each time one gets going there is the sense of a master enjoying himself hugely: the characters themselves seem to become cleverer and wittier as their puppeteer’s dialogic invention takes flight. That phrase, and the building’s air of shabby irrelevance, are pleasurably reminiscent of the “slow horses” consigned to Slough House in the excellent modern spy novels about a group of MI5 failures and troublemakers by Mick Herron. Nat is an aging spy with three passions, the work he loves, his family, and badminton. While this novel has high-wire moments, le Carré doesn’t do "Goldfinger." “That means that if you actually go back to the first big conspiracies in ‘The Spy Who Came In From the Cold’ you’ve got to consider how Smiley ages and how young he was at that time,” le Carré says. Brexit certainly looms large over Agent Running in the Field. If le Carré has always been cynical about the milieu in which his novels take place, he’s also long evinced an admiration for the best that Europe and Britain have to offer. Always ignore them and read the review instead. Simply knowing that John le Carré is still producing good stories at nearly ninety impels me to keep going. Oh dear. He is back in London with his wife, the long-suffering Prue. This motive, of course, was to win the Cold War, which at its most basic level was a war governed by opposing ideologies. And, while that is true to a certain extent, and even plays a crucial role in the plot, it isn't a scathing polemic on the matter. Any good spy stories writers will make you believe that the event occurred. With everything that’s going on in our world today, it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to put together a great spy story that takes it all in.

[Can someone explain the ending? It can sometimes seem, indeed, as though the rest of the book comprises merely the stuff that has to be efficiently moved into place, just so, in order that these charged conversations become possible. Instead he has to take on the task of running a slightly off-kilter enclave in London that’s about to get itself into very hot water. Nat is a reassuringly familiar Le Carré creation. The narrative voice employed in this novel is fantastic, as we follow a middle-aged spy who has come in from abroad and is stationed in a dead-end job in London (think a more serious version of Mick Herron's Slough House). He's nailed it, once again, on the details of espionage, counterintelligence, counterespionage, internal politics, and so on. Great read, another classic Le Carre. Pure spy novel pleasure mixed with lingustic pleasure... At the age of eighty-eight, there is no doubt that the John Le Carre that I revere is fully present. “It’s an amazing father-son relationship completely reversed: They’re now the bosses and they consult me, pick me up and put me down as they wish.”, According to le Carré, The Ink Factory now plans to do new television adaptations of all the novels featuring Cold War spy George Smiley — this time in chronological order. It might be because I do all of my reading via audio books nowadays, and think that Donald Trump is despicable, Brexit a mess, and that I am also a strong atheist. Recently returned from running agents under diplomatic cover in Estonia, he is now put out to pasture in an obscure subsection of the service that keeps an eye on Russian affairs but is separate from the powerful Russian desk itself. October 22nd 2019 But, of course, John Le Carré is up to the task. If nothing else, Nat appreciates the human element, rather than exploit it as Smiley did. And as usual, his portrayal of the civil service as largely populated by incompetent fawning careerists who don't hesitate to shit on the few members of staff who actually do something strikes a chord with me. Lately, though – and by lately, I mean the last 2-3 decades – le Carré has, rather admirably, cast his literary eye on the other hidden and not-so-hidden systems that govern so much of what we do, and how our world works. He's not afraid to say it, either. Badminton included, it all makes the duplicity and betrayal harder to see coming. Yes, it's a legitimate and no doubt real reason for some but it made this less escapi. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. The master of the spy genre takes aim at Brexit and Trump in a classy entertainment about political ideals and deception. US vs THEM. One clean agent sacrificed for the sake of another, dirtier, agent. Agent Running in the Field tells the story of a just-over-the-hill MI6 agent who stumbles onto a potentially explosive double-agent scheme. Will they find a way out before it’s too late? “It is my considered opinion, that for Britain and Europe, and for liberal democracy across the entire world as a whole, Britain’s departure from the European Union in the time of Donald Trump, and Britain’s consequent unqualified dependence on the United States in an era when the US is heading straight down the road to institutional racism and neo-fascism, is an unmitigated clusterfuck bar none.”, “If a traitor doesn’t surprise the shit out of us, he’s no bloody good at his job.”. 894646. Follow New York Times Books on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, sign up for our newsletter or our literary calendar.

I'm torn about this latest from the best espionage writer ever. So Jane and I have worked on that process for the last 55 years or so.”, Family also plays a big part in adaptations of le Carré’s novels for the screen.

And it is Ed, of all unlikely people, who will take Prue, Florence and Nat himself down the path of political anger that will ensnare them all. I'm torn about this latest from the best espionage writer ever. Agent Running in the Field tells the story of a just-over-the-hill MI6 agent who stumbles onto a potentially explosive double-agent scheme. Though most of his contemporaries have long since risen to the rarefied heights of leadership, Nat remains stuck in the middle: overseeing field agents who do the exciting work, but with limited authority of his own. “I am dismayed when I’m not writing, completely content when I am. By all means go back and read some or all of his other books, but you don't need to, and you most certainly should not deny yourself the pleasure of this book. Untitled Goose Game (PC/Mac) Review: G.O.A.T. “Somebody who enjoys the adventure and is not scrupulous about small stuff.”, In his new novel, “Agent Running in the Field” — set in modern-day Britain — the main character, Nat, is called out by his daughter about his lack of ethics. On the other, the subplot of how awful Donald Trump and Brexit are and that this is a reason to commit treason left me cold. He’s out of step with the direction of MI6; his boss is a slimy, slick, ambitious desk jockey, hired from the City and married to a Tory peeress. It is dramatic chamber music, in which mere conversation provides all the suspense and slow-dawning revelation you could want at any scale. Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré review — lies and spies in the age of Brexit His 25th novel has everything you want from a Le Carré tale, says Robbie Millen. It’s the question that Le Carré has worried away at since his first novel, Call for the Dead, was published in 1961. While "Agent Running in the Field" isn’t a breathtaking thriller, it is a breathing and alive contemporary tale. Russian sleeper-agent-turned-double-agent Sergei is troublesome. Start by marking “Agent Running in the Field” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Minor characters, like retired Russian spy Arkady, are defined by treachery and critical to the plot. "Agent Running in the Field" is a throwback to le Carré ’s first two novels starring another retired spy, George Smiley, the author’s most famous recurring character.

), evergreen at 87, turns … In what may come as a surprise to readers, le Carré’s latest novel, Agent Running in the Field, is set, and is very much about, today. It's very relevant and topical as it occurs in a post-Brexit and rapidly intolerant world. I get through at least three books a week, and have read all of Le Carré's previous books at. Le Carré’s storytelling genius frequently causes pause to consider what a pleasure it is to read him, right up to the novel’s thought-provoking, albeit anticlimactic ending. To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com.

(I still think Mo Delaware was a real person.) We have noticed that there is an issue with your subscription billing details. (A veteran spymaster named Valentina, she does all the work with her seductive voice.)

And as much as I enjoyed A Legacy of Spies, it was obvious that the old gang at Cambridge Circus was ready for the knacker’s yard. Nat’s new berth, the Haven, is a decrepit building in a Camden back street, “the Office’s home for lost dogs”. It is not set in WWII or the cold war. le Carré, he the greatest of spy novelists (no one even comes close), has never been wrong about any of this. Yes, it's a legitimate and no doubt real reason for some but it made this less escapist pleasure and more, well, like a political novel with an odd ending. And so it does for Nat and for the multitude of le Carré fans who know that this spy-novel master loves to double down on plots starring expendable, aging spies in the twilight of their careers who are pulled back into Deep State operations.



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