Book info

• Title The Looking Glass War
• Author John le Carré
• Year 1965
• Genre Thriller

When the Department - faded since the war and busy only with bureaucratic battles - hears rumours of a missile base near the West German border, it seems the perfect opportunity to regain some standing in the Intelligence world. Desperate for glory and determined to outdo their rivals at the Circus, including George Smiley, they send deactivated agent Fred Leiser back into East Germany, armed only with some schoolboy training and his memories of the war. In the land of eloquent silence that is Communist East Germany, Leiser's fate is no longer his own.

Thoughts

I think knowing a bit of the background to this book is helpful as it turns out le Carre was annoyed that his previous book, which was intended to be a satire poking fun at the spy industry, was actually really well received and the main character considered something of a hero. So he had to double down in this one and really made the spies look incompetent and out of touch. It was interesting to see how they went about their business whilst clinging on to their previous victories and not wanting to move with the times. George Smiley was there but was hardly a main character, just dipping in and out to move things along occasionally. A fascinating read knowing the background, I’m not sure how I would have felt about it not knowing that in advance.

Rating: 3 / 5