Le Carré / A Legacy of Spies

[richardfinegold]

I'll get back to you on Christoph - give it a week or two . But Call for the Dead (no indefinite article) the essential starting point IMV, especially in view of A Legacy of Spies. It's where it begins - but in all the many interviews with JLeC I've ever read, I'm not sure if anyone's ever asked him how much, if at all, he was aware of what might lie ahead when he started writing it on the train commuting to his job at, we now know, MI6 (he described this to us when he spoke to a small group of us at school back in 1966). Probably not at all, given the stuff he wrote between Spy and Tinker Tailor...., the latter his towering masterpiece.

It's why I so enjoyed Legacy... on a first run-through - all those threads finally pulled together, everything finally fallen into place, 66 years later...it's as if he, through Guillam, can only now see how it all fitted together.

A Murder of Quality is a time-out for Smiley - the second novel, the character taking shape, but nothing to do with the narrative arc begun in Call....



Yes I wasn't convinced by that final protestation from Smiley about what he had been fighting for all this time, I thought that was the Hampstead anti-Brexiteer speaking

I just finished Call —it’s a quick read. It does fill in a lot of gaps, particularly with Mendel and Guillam, who had always just been rather minor characters in my mind. One interesting point, viz Legacy, is that in Call, Guillam and Smiley are more or less colleagues and co-equals (and there is no development of Guillam’s character other than being a foil for Smiley). In Legacy Guillam is portrayed as being a directionless youth who is talent spotted and mentored by Smiley. In the denouement of Legacy, G. Seeks out Smiley, essentially wanting to hear from his Mentor’s lips a justification for having devoted their lives to their profession, with all the moral and personal sacrifices that such dedication entailed.
I think that I will skip the second novel on your recommendation that it strays from the arc of the larger story and revisit The Spy That.....since it’s been a long time for me

[richardfinegold]

Am finishing rereading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, after realizing that I had totally forgotten the plot.

[Richard Tarleton]

Am finishing rereading The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, after realizing that I had totally forgotten the plot.

SPOILER ALERT

I've nearly finished another run-through of Legacy....it's a Volvo, not a Volkswagen ....I don't think Christoph wanted to kill Guillam, just threaten him (he mainly wanted money)...he's a wreck...the guy in the Volvo had obviously supplied the gun, but seems concerned for Christoph's welfare...

His lawyer Tabitha, in asking whether he slept with Tulip, says she (Tulip) told her sister Lotte everything - but Tulip dodn't have a chance to see or speak to Lotte after her night of passion with Guillam.....

I love "...our Jack Russell, Loftus"

[DracoM]

Should this have been headed SPOILER, I wonder?

[Richard Tarleton]

Should this have been headed SPOILER, I wonder?

Duly amended.....

[richardfinegold]

Should this have been headed SPOILER, I wonder?

See Post #9 When I reopened this thread I asked if it was ok to discuss the book now that it had been out a few months. Also, I am not sure that I agree with Richard on any details except for the Volvo vs VW comment...I really don't know what Christoph's motivations were. It struck me as odd also that he seems so mercenary, yet is willing to kill his Golden Calf....This is what I meant when I suggested that the ending of this book may show a bit of a decline in the powers of the Author.

[DracoM]

Woops, sorry - didn't see that.

[Richard Tarleton]

See Post #9 When I reopened this thread I asked if it was ok to discuss the book now that it had been out a few months. Also, I am not sure that I agree with Richard on any details except for the Volvo vs VW comment...I really don't know what Christoph's motivations were. It struck me as odd also that he seems so mercenary, yet is willing to kill his Golden Calf....This is what I meant when I suggested that the ending of this book may show a bit of a decline in the powers of the Author.

It's an odd episode, I grant you - a bit of added jeopardy for the chief protagonist, maybe, but meeting Christoph doesn't actually advance the plot, he doesn't need to meet him....he doesn't meet Karen after all....tho he does meet Gustav....and Tulip did not have the opportunity to tell Lotte about her night in Prague with Guillam, as Tabitha suggests, only about her fantasies about him.... Christoph's character is pretty cursorily sketched in, we know he's done prison time, takes cocaine and is a thug albeit perhaps with a soft side - the victim of a problematic upbringing.

There, nobody will have the slightest idea what we're talking about

[richardfinegold]

There, nobody will have the slightest idea what we're talking about [/QUOTE]

[Richard Tarleton]

Just watched on Sky Arts: 90 minutes of John Le Carré talking on stage recently at the Royal Festival Hall about his life with Smiley (in an event in aid of Médécins Sans Frontières). Absolutely riveting stuff. Raconteur, mimic, he is just superb. There's a tiny clip on You Tube, hopefully more will appear in due course. Skilful twining together of the stories of his life and that of his secret sharer, Smiley, references and excerpts from what we've been discussing here, some lovely anecdotes about the various actors who have played Smiley (Rupert Davies, Alec Guinness, Denholm Eliot, James Mason, Gary Oldman, and the one who would have done it brilliantly, but for one problem - Arthur Lowe. (I remember seeing the screen test scene they shot with him, the scene from Call for the Dead where Smiley meets Mundt on the doorstep of his own house - he would have been perfect, but they could not rid themselves of Captain Mainwaring, ad buckled up when the scene was screened...). He ended with an elegant defence of Smiley's still being alive when he should by rights have been dead long ago.

[Nick Armstrong]

Just watched on Sky Arts: 90 minutes of John Le Carré talking on stage recently at the Royal Festival Hall about his life with Smiley (in an event in aid of Médécins Sans Frontières). Absolutely riveting stuff. Raconteur, mimic, he is just superb. There's a tiny clip on You Tube, hopefully more will appear in due course. Skilful twining together of the stories of his life and that of his secret sharer, Smiley, references and excerpts from what we've been discussing here, some lovely anecdotes about the various actors who have played Smiley (Rupert Davies, Alec Guinness, Denholm Eliot, James Mason, Gary Oldman, and the one who would have done it brilliantly, but for one problem - Arthur Lowe. (I remember seeing the screen test scene they shot with him, the scene from Call for the Dead where Smiley meets Mundt on the doorstep of his own house - he would have been perfect, but they could not rid themselves of Captain Mainwaring, ad buckled up when the scene was screened...). He ended with an elegant defence of Smiley's still being alive when he should by rights have been dead long ago.

Sounds great. Please flag if it's available anywhere else in due course... as it's not enough for me to break the habit of a lifetime and pay for Sky...

[Petrushka]

Just watched on Sky Arts: 90 minutes of John Le Carré talking on stage recently at the Royal Festival Hall about his life with Smiley (in an event in aid of Médécins Sans Frontières). Absolutely riveting stuff. Raconteur, mimic, he is just superb. There's a tiny clip on You Tube, hopefully more will appear in due course. Skilful twining together of the stories of his life and that of his secret sharer, Smiley, references and excerpts from what we've been discussing here, some lovely anecdotes about the various actors who have played Smiley (Rupert Davies, Alec Guinness, Denholm Eliot, James Mason, Gary Oldman, and the one who would have done it brilliantly, but for one problem - Arthur Lowe. (I remember seeing the screen test scene they shot with him, the scene from Call for the Dead where Smiley meets Mundt on the doorstep of his own house - he would have been perfect, but they could not rid themselves of Captain Mainwaring, ad buckled up when the scene was screened...). He ended with an elegant defence of Smiley's still being alive when he should by rights have been dead long ago.

I had the e-mail about that event (Sept 7) but it was on the same night as the VPO Mahler 6 Prom for which I already had a ticket so I reluctantly had to forgo. It would be great if the full talk appeared on youTube as I was so annoyed about the clash of timing.

[Richard Tarleton]

Sounds great. Please flag if it's available anywhere else in due course... as it's not enough for me to break the habit of a lifetime and pay for Sky...

Will do.....lot of good stuff on Sky Arts....

I first heard JleC talking, in a front room, in 1965....amazingly he hasn't changed that much, just matured, like a great wine.....

[DracoM]

On Utube, there are actually a number of LeC interviews and talks.