Book Name : The Looking Glass War
What is it about : The almost-defunct branch in the British Secret Service which dealt with military affairs of all shapes and sizes, had a surprising tip-off about a missile site in East Germany, and devoured this un-expected opportunity with all its hunger and energy by deploying out-of-touch and inadequately trained agents with rusty equipment and procedures twenty years out-of-date. The mission to discover and report behind enemy lines exploded in their face with some dubious help from their sister secret service which had ambitions of their own. The unfortunate agent Fred Leiser, a naturalised Pole, was last seen holding a knife across an East German girl's throat when the whole house was stormed by the East German police force.
Some thoughts after having read the book : Written in the very productive years of this great author, presenting in full view the cynical irony, ruthless betrayal and the hopelessness to re-live the nostalgia of a lost cause. Le Carre excelled here in describing the "Agent recruitment cycle" - hunted down the desperate (yes Fred, you would need a bob or two to buy a necklace for your new girl), fed their ego (yes Fred, you were always the best and was high on our list), kept up the visage of the glory and might of the old Department (yes Fred, the Department had never been in better hands), made Fred felt loyal to their handlers (yes Fred, we all salute you and wait for your triumphant return, your White Lady cocktail would be waiting) and when excuses ran out, plain deceit would do (yes Fred, carrying a 50 Pounds transmitter and crawling a couple of hundreds yards behind enemy lines would all go un-detected, no worries).
Would I recommend this book to you : Good Le Carre book to re-capture the haunting atmosphere in the Cold War era all those years ago and how agents were fed to the vultures whilst those in London moved on to the next recruitment - we all know the rules, don't we gentlemen ? A brilliant novel - heart breaking and at the same time the readers wondered almost aloud at the stupidity of it all.
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