Rating: 
Summary: Simply the best.
Review: Along with "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy," this
is simply the very best of the genre which gets
better with each subsequent reading.
Rating:
Summary: Splendid Conclusion to the "Karla Trilogy"
Review: George Smiley returns, called out from retirement, with one last, fateful encounter with his Soviet nemesis Karla. John Le Carre's writing has never been better, with elegant insights into the minds of his intelligence operatives, most notably George Smiley, in finely crafted, often poetic, prose. Le Carre slowly cranks up the suspense as we venture through the inner workings of an Estonian resistance group in Paris and London, before we are plunged headlong into a series of encounters between Smiley and Eastern European agents working on behalf of Karla's Soviet agency. Here at least do we see a human side to Karla; a serious flaw in Karla's character which inexorably leads to a powerful, spellbinding conclusion. Fans of George Smiley will not be disappointed in this satisfying conclusion to the "Karla" trilogy that includes "The Honourable Schoolboy" and "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy".
Rating:
Summary: A powerful summation of a personal/political ethos
Review: George Smiley's final appearance stands as one of Le Carre's very best acomplishments. This extraordinary writer draws his many diverse themes and moral quandries together in a story that is both winningly complex and, in the end, shockingly simple.LeCarre has always used the spy story form as an exploration of lonelienss,loss of indivuudailty and the etheral nature of honesty. But in this book -- perhaps a touch heavy handed if you don't the authors other work -- these themes are closer to to the surface than ever. Its profoundly moving, and the fact that it remains a stunningly entertaining read with all Le Carre packs into it is a worthy testament to this fine writers "trade craft."
Rating:
Summary: Portraying human nature in the world of spycraft.
Review: I have recently become a fan of Le Carre, and this is my favorite book of his that I have read thus far. The immediacy of the personalities, amdist the larger world of geopolitics, shines through in an unforgettable way. I have read and enjoyed most Robert Ludlum novels with their fantastic, yet unrealistic story lines. Le Carre's protagonists, particularly George Smiley, do not possess the near superhuman powers, the "eyes in the back of the head", that are necessary for a Ludlum protagonist to survive from chapter to chapter. But Le Carre's stories have more of a poignance, an immediacy, and an appeal to the human element that connects his readers to his protagonists. His writing is exceptional, as well as his style of portraying British speech and outlook. He reveals the minds of the persons whose lives have been continuously shaped and buffeted by the vagaries of the cold war. Foremost, is Le Carre's hero George Smiley, whose personal life history has been irretrievably shaped by his immersion in cold war espionage, and for whom, no victory or defeat will ever come without mixed emotions.
Rating:
Summary: Portraying human nature in the world of spycraft.
Review: I have recently become a fan of Le Carre, and this is my favorite book of his that I have read thus far. The immediacy of the personalities, amdist the larger world of geopolitics, shines through in an unforgettable way. I have read and enjoyed most Robert Ludlum novels with their fantastic, yet unrealistic story lines. Le Carre's protagonists, particularly George Smiley, do not possess the near superhuman powers, the "eyes in the back of the head", that are necessary for a Ludlum protagonist to survive from chapter to chapter. But Le Carre's stories have more of a poignance, an immediacy, and an appeal to the human element that connects his readers to his protagonists. His writing is exceptional, as well as his style of portraying British speech and outlook. He reveals the minds of the persons whose lives have been continuously shaped and buffeted by the vagaries of the cold war. Foremost, is Le Carre's hero George Smiley, whose personal life history has been irretrievably shaped by his immersion in cold war espionage, and for whom, no victory or defeat will ever come without mixed emotions.
Rating: 
Summary: Didn't bring a smile to my face
Review: In his Smiley sequel, this bloke has filled countless pages with the most boring stuff. He cannot hold my attention for more than a few phrases at a time. Mr. LeCarre writes like a pedant and probably is one, fills the cliche of Honorable Schoolboy, that's why he could fill page after page with nonsense maintaining best behavior with a straight face. There is no doubt that he is a Tinker, less Tailor or Soldier, failed lousy as Spy. gerborg
Rating:
Summary: Didn't bring a smile to my face
Review: In his Smiley sequel, this bloke has filled countless pages with the most boring stuff. He cannot hold my attention for more than a few phrases at a time. Mr. LeCarre writes like a pedant and probably is one, fills the cliche of Honorable Schoolboy, that's why he could fill page after page with nonsense maintaining best behavior with a straight face. There is no doubt that he is a Tinker, less Tailor or Soldier, failed lousy as Spy. gerborg
Rating:
Summary: gripping
Review: In this book England's finest spy, the unlikely George Smiley, comes out of retirement to follow up a series of clues--and murders--pointing to his shadowy Soviet opposite, Smiley's Moriarty Karla. And when each man carries something disavowed by the other, what constitutes justice, let alone resolution?
Rating:
Summary: The Spy Master Trilogy Concludes!
Review: Like most of the best-selling works that come from the unchallenged master of the intelligent spy thriller John LeCarre, this is a fictional but absorbing treatise on the hidden and conflicted corners of the human heart, the many ways in which our own natures feed into and extend the darker impulse of a society bent on pursuing the secrets and treachery that ever lurks for the unsuspecting victim. Here, in the final of three best-selling novels tracing the pilgrim's progress of George Smiley, the intrepid and unlikely hero of the post-industrial Western world, LeCarre concludes his marvelously convoluted narrative tracing the continuing history of the Smiley chronicles, a spell-binding and endlessly intricate treatise detailing the perfidy, moral compromises, and treachery of the world of British intelligence. In "Smiley's People", the object of Smiley's ministrations is once again thrust toward achieving final revenge against the legendary Karla, the Chief of the Soviet Covert Espionage Bureau. Having stuck a devastating blow against Karla previously through the ingenious employment of Jerry Westerby in the Far East, Smiley now turns to using an assassination in London of an obscure Eastern European émigré and would-be counter-revolutionary into an entry-point into Karla's domain, and as the Circus (British Intelligence) begins to unravel the many points of light this careful sifting of signs through tradecraft, they discover the one irresistible lure they need to tempt Karla out of the darkness and into their waiting clutches. Given all the murder and mayhem that Karla has visited both on the Circus in general and on George Smiley in particular, there is a number of levels of revenges operating here, and these LeCarre mines superbly in exploring the impulses rational and otherwise, that propel such urges. The plot, as usual, is ingenious, intricate, and horrific in its human toll, played out against a landscape of the far-flung persons and places across the European landscape, from London to Berne to Deep inside the former Soviet Union. Once again LeCarre takes us on a cautious yet beautifully choreographed adventure into the heart of darkness of ourselves, and we shouldn't be surprised to find some scar tissue and broken bones as we descend deeper into the tortuous caverns we keep hidden in our subconscious realms. LeCarre is nothing if not a superb chronicler of the ways in which our own natures become a battle ground for the struggle between good and evil, the good we can be for others, and the evil we do to them and ourselves by subscribing to ideologies, almost any ideology, that finally forces us to choose between our values and our duty. This is a marvelous book, an entertaining read, and a stunning example of the sophistication, complexity, and sheer intelligence of the author in detailing the subterranean world of international espionage. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: More than just a spy novel
Review: Other people have written more complete reviews of this book, but I just had a few comments to make. LeCarre's book's have claims to serious literature, not just spy novels, and I think this is one of his best. LeCarre, like all great novelists, is good at characterization, and a great observer of people. Which brings me to my main point. You don't ever want LeCarre describing your face. He is always noticing odd things about people's faces, especially the moisture on a person's face. I noted this several times before. He'll make you sound like a greasy second-story man no matter what you look like, it seems. My point notwithstanding, LeCarre is a great novelist.
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