I had first tried to read this when I was about 15, at the height of my infatuation with James Bond stories. I tried and failed never getting past page 50. Even though I was reading Ian Fleming at the time, Le Carré was too different to seem good. As time went on, I watched a few movies based on his books and slowly I started to come to terms with the fact that I didn't have what it took to appreciate his stories earlier in my life.
After watching the first four MI-5 series (not to mention putting another 25+ years of age on), I thought it was time to retry this book, which is heralded as one of the best spy stories ever. This time, I did manage to appreciate the book very much and to enjoy the story.
It's all cold war, U.S.A., Soviet Union, East and West Germany. The context seems very real, very historic, and perhaps for this reason, exciting. The spies are human beings, flawed and mortal. The intrigue is deep. The plot twists and turns, but doesn't leave you behind.
The premise revolves around Alec Leamas, a British spy who runs an information network in East Germany and who lost one of his most important assets. Alec gets involved in a mission to assassinate the man who would have killed his informant. Just as he is assigned this task, though, his life seems to collapse all around him. He becomes destitute and takes to drinking. Things seems not ready to go anywhere in the story, but that façade crumbles page by page and the reader learns that the plot continues to evolve toward an exciting sequence of events. I enjoyed this a lot and will be reading more from Le Carré soon.
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