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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
One of my favorite genres is espionage thrillers. I liked this book and found it entertaining. I hated the abrupt end. I also thought it was too heavy-handed and polemic. I think that he has made this book shout his own personal view too much.
I can understand why Charlie would not like this one as much as previous books. I prefer the Smiley books too. The moralizing here is front-and-center. The typical action scenes that one might find in this genre take place behind the scenes. This book is so much about the moral dilemma that once Toby makes his decision to be a whistle-blower the book simply ends and you don’t know his fate.
Another interesting observation about this book is that I think it’s his first novel that is Brit versus Brit. The bad guy in this case is the government. It’s not the past model of the British government is the good guy fighting outside ideologies as the bad guy like west versus east. I think he is disgusted with the US and UK governments and in his opinion the greed of capitalism left behind by the modern, post-Cold War world and wanted to make that clear.
I thought this interview was interesting. “There is anger [in the book], there is frustration, and there is impatience, particularly with the Brits,” he said.
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-22452335 |
A bit belatedly, because I have only just found the time to read the article, thanks very much for this,
Bookworm_Girl - I found it interesting.
An interesting thought about its being about Brit versus Brit.