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RIP: John LeCarre
Dec. 14th, 2020 10:56 amMourning for John LeCarre is complicated by the fact that he was my father's favorite fiction author.
Dad was part of Military Intelligence from its inception, soon after my birth 59 years ago, until his retirement. One of his assignments -- 1967-69 -- was as an exchange officer with British Military Intelligence. He was probably familiar with LeCarre's works from the popularity of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, both film and book. But it was his time working for what LeCarre called "the Circus" that really got him into LeCarre's works.
Dad couldn't stand Ian Fleming or the James Bond movies. As he once said to me, "LeCarre gets it right. Most spies are boring little men in raincoats with bad breath."
For me, LeCarre filled in some of my father's background. The recent Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy movie finally showed me a SKIF. Dad had explained them to me, but, as someone who has a hard time visualizing things, this first time seeing them clicked all sorts of pieces into place for me about Dad's career. It also finally made me read the Karla trilogy. My father's favorite was (I originally wrote that as "is") The Honorable Schoolboy which is the only one never filmed. It links to Dad's times (3 tours: 1961-62, 1964-65, 1974-75 when he was Chief Intelligence Officer) in Vietnam.
My favorite LeCarre book is The Secret Pilgrim with my favorite film made from his books being The Russia House -- one of the late Sean Connery's best late roles.
All of LeCarre's books are good descriptions of British and, to a lesser extent, American foreign policy with some interesting speculations about how the secret war is being fought. It is speculation. David Cornwell's cover was blown by the famous traitor Kim Philby just as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was climbing the bestseller charts in the early 1960s. Any books written after that were extrapolation based on Cornwell/LeCarre's earlier career, his analysis of western foreign policy and British politics, and his deep understanding of character.
If anyone wants a good starting point, I like The Russia House which is post cold war and driven by a civilian character. For spy craft, the Karla Trilogy (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; Smiley's People) is the gold standard. Some books are better than others (I wouldn't recommend The Little Drummer Girl as a first book by LeCarre, for instance), but none is bad.
We've lost something by losing John LeCarre, nee David Cornwell, a man who became, by his own analysis, more politically left wing as he got older. He was never content to have an opinion without thinking it through and was willing to share his opinion with people through well written and reasoned articles and books.
And for me, I've felt another connection to my father fray and break.
Dad was part of Military Intelligence from its inception, soon after my birth 59 years ago, until his retirement. One of his assignments -- 1967-69 -- was as an exchange officer with British Military Intelligence. He was probably familiar with LeCarre's works from the popularity of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, both film and book. But it was his time working for what LeCarre called "the Circus" that really got him into LeCarre's works.
Dad couldn't stand Ian Fleming or the James Bond movies. As he once said to me, "LeCarre gets it right. Most spies are boring little men in raincoats with bad breath."
For me, LeCarre filled in some of my father's background. The recent Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy movie finally showed me a SKIF. Dad had explained them to me, but, as someone who has a hard time visualizing things, this first time seeing them clicked all sorts of pieces into place for me about Dad's career. It also finally made me read the Karla trilogy. My father's favorite was (I originally wrote that as "is") The Honorable Schoolboy which is the only one never filmed. It links to Dad's times (3 tours: 1961-62, 1964-65, 1974-75 when he was Chief Intelligence Officer) in Vietnam.
My favorite LeCarre book is The Secret Pilgrim with my favorite film made from his books being The Russia House -- one of the late Sean Connery's best late roles.
All of LeCarre's books are good descriptions of British and, to a lesser extent, American foreign policy with some interesting speculations about how the secret war is being fought. It is speculation. David Cornwell's cover was blown by the famous traitor Kim Philby just as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold was climbing the bestseller charts in the early 1960s. Any books written after that were extrapolation based on Cornwell/LeCarre's earlier career, his analysis of western foreign policy and British politics, and his deep understanding of character.
If anyone wants a good starting point, I like The Russia House which is post cold war and driven by a civilian character. For spy craft, the Karla Trilogy (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy; The Honorable Schoolboy; Smiley's People) is the gold standard. Some books are better than others (I wouldn't recommend The Little Drummer Girl as a first book by LeCarre, for instance), but none is bad.
We've lost something by losing John LeCarre, nee David Cornwell, a man who became, by his own analysis, more politically left wing as he got older. He was never content to have an opinion without thinking it through and was willing to share his opinion with people through well written and reasoned articles and books.
And for me, I've felt another connection to my father fray and break.
