John le Carré, author of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, dies aged 89 / Betrayal, illusion, late middle age — John Le Carré novels were more than just spy thrillers
NB: John le Carré was a literary genius and not just a writer of espionage thrillers. His novels were beautifully written, with deep existential reflection about the frailty and decency of human beings, and about contemporary politics. A Perfect Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and The Russia House were among those which plunged readers into the conflicts of the Cold War; while The Night Manager and Our Kind of Traitor that of the decades after its end. Le Carré evoked the atmosphere of the era of ideological conflict as did Eric Ambler the dread of the 1930's. It's sad to see him go. DS
John le Carré, who forged thrillers from equal parts of adventure, moral courage and literary flair, has died aged 89. Le Carré explored the gap between the west’s high-flown rhetoric of freedom and the gritty reality of defending it, in novels such as The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and The Night Manager, which gained him critical acclaim and made him a bestseller around the world. On Sunday, his family confirmed he had died of pneumonia at the Royal Cornwall Hospital on Saturday night. “We all deeply grieve his passing,” they wrote in a statement. His longtime agent Jonny Geller described him as “an undisputed giant of English literature. He defined the cold war era and fearlessly spoke truth to power in the decades that followed … I have lost a mentor, an inspiration and most importantly, a friend. We will not see his like again.”…
Betrayal, illusion, late middle age: John Le Carré novels were more than just spy thrillers
The appeal of Le Carré’s writing can be hard to state simply, because in some sense it is really an anti-appeal. His characters might be spies, but they aren’t dashing or handsome. They don’t take heroic action or engage in leaps of faith. Le Carré’s characters plod. Yet for all their superficial ordinariness, Le Carré’s characters are memorable for the richness and complexity of their inner lives. ..
John le Carré never won the Booker – but then he preferred it out in the cold
