Rating: 
Summary: Honourable Spy
Review: "The Honourable Schoolboy" is my first John Le Carre novel. It immediately brought to mind Graham Greene's, "The Quiet American" and the British miniseries, 'The Sandbaggers', by Yorkshire Television or Channel 4, starring a subdued and laconic Roy Marsden. No James Bond in sight!Like another English novelist who I recall, John Fowles; Le Carre must certainly be forgiven for his occasional minor literary flaws for the fact that his overall observational skills and plot development are exceptional. I'm not a spy novel enthusiast, per se, but the lives of George Smiley, his Circus and Whitehall associates, the ambivalent Jerry Westerby, Liesa, Drake & Nelson Ko, Luke, ... are depicted in a way that makes the reader care about their fate. The climax in Hong Kong is exceptional.
Rating:
Summary: Essential Le Carre: A classic of the genre
Review: A book based on dichotomies, Westerby and Smiley. A must for any fan of the genre
Rating: 
Summary: Honourable Schoolboy
Review: As an addict of Le Carre, the Honourable Schoolboy is my favourite of his stories. The intricate plotting of the chase, the utterly realistic and flawed geniuses that make up Smiley's team after the fall of the Circus in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy make this a compelling read. The twist at the end was as unexpected as it was believable, and Jerry Westerby is one of the great characters of modern fiction. I give a strong recommendation that if you are new to Le Carre that you read Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy first (or buy the Smiley trilogy). British spooks, but clever and compelling.
Rating: 
Summary: MIXED UP MESS
Review: I HAD READ THIS ALOST EXACTLY 20 YEARS AGO AND RATED IT WELL, TODAY I CAN'T SEE WHAT I SAW OR WHAT ALL THE 5 STARS ARE ABOUT, THE END IS A CONFUSED MESS. I LIKED LEARNING ABOUT HONG KONG. D
Rating:
Summary: Slow and steady beauty...
Review: I read this novel for the second time recently and having the purpose and plot of the novel clear in my mind all the extra dimensions in the novel immediately revealed themselves. I previously saw Jerry Westerby as sympathetic but slightly pompous and contrastd with Smiley my opinion of him wasn't especially high (unlike other charactrs like Alec Leamas and Smiley himself) but then again contrasted with Smiley not many people really stand out. However, Le Carrè gets the balance right in this novel. The balance between writing his characters out so well yet keeping the plot going at a good pace. Th Circus is a "sinking ship" wih Smiley as it captain. Like a father, Smiley has to pick up the pieces of his broken children and put them back together. Apart from the worry of rejuvenating the Circus, Smiley must also deal with his own past and with his own personal loves and hates including his unfaithful wife. As such Smiley by day spends his time purging the Circus of the evils with which it has been infected by the mole (who was unmasked in the previous novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and by night takes long walks in a bid to purge his own devils. These apart, Smiley must also battle the Whitehall barons and control a great operation in the Far East in order to capture two great Russian spies who are also brothers, an operation headed by Jerry Westerby. And what a character Westerby is, I realised on my second reading. Le Carrè describes his loneliness and the purpose behind his vices so well yet in such short bursts, we feel we are in the shoes of Jerry. And despite knowing that some of his actions are wrong, we still will him to go on and feel that we would do the same were we in his place. The backdrop is described better than any novel I have read about the region. Simply using this period and hopping around from war-torn city to war-torn city, Le Carrè encompasses al the futilities of war without once morally judging them and speaks about sacrifice which is a major theme. A newspaper (the name of which escapes me) described The Honourable Schoolboy as "simply on of the finest novels of the seventies" which is a fitting subtitle to the novel as it encompasses it and describes it all well. Another issue which Le Carrè brings to the forefront painfully well is that of the moral ambiguities of life and of the spy profession. At the end of the novel, just before the prologue chapter, all of hiscomes into contex in the last few sentences of the chapter. Westerby, Ko, Lizzie, Smiley, Luke all come into context as we imagine the scene moving in almost slow motion. It is very hard to decide but I feel that of all the Le Carrè novels I have read, this is probably my favourite. If you read it, you would know why.
Rating:
Summary: Slow and steady beauty...
Review: I read this novel for the second time recently and having the purpose and plot of the novel clear in my mind all the extra dimensions in the novel immediately revealed themselves. I previously saw Jerry Westerby as sympathetic but slightly pompous and contrastd with Smiley my opinion of him wasn't especially high (unlike other charactrs like Alec Leamas and Smiley himself) but then again contrasted with Smiley not many people really stand out. However, Le Carrè gets the balance right in this novel. The balance between writing his characters out so well yet keeping the plot going at a good pace. Th Circus is a "sinking ship" wih Smiley as it captain. Like a father, Smiley has to pick up the pieces of his broken children and put them back together. Apart from the worry of rejuvenating the Circus, Smiley must also deal with his own past and with his own personal loves and hates including his unfaithful wife. As such Smiley by day spends his time purging the Circus of the evils with which it has been infected by the mole (who was unmasked in the previous novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) and by night takes long walks in a bid to purge his own devils. These apart, Smiley must also battle the Whitehall barons and control a great operation in the Far East in order to capture two great Russian spies who are also brothers, an operation headed by Jerry Westerby. And what a character Westerby is, I realised on my second reading. Le Carrè describes his loneliness and the purpose behind his vices so well yet in such short bursts, we feel we are in the shoes of Jerry. And despite knowing that some of his actions are wrong, we still will him to go on and feel that we would do the same were we in his place. The backdrop is described better than any novel I have read about the region. Simply using this period and hopping around from war-torn city to war-torn city, Le Carrè encompasses al the futilities of war without once morally judging them and speaks about sacrifice which is a major theme. A newspaper (the name of which escapes me) described The Honourable Schoolboy as "simply on of the finest novels of the seventies" which is a fitting subtitle to the novel as it encompasses it and describes it all well. Another issue which Le Carrè brings to the forefront painfully well is that of the moral ambiguities of life and of the spy profession. At the end of the novel, just before the prologue chapter, all of hiscomes into contex in the last few sentences of the chapter. Westerby, Ko, Lizzie, Smiley, Luke all come into context as we imagine the scene moving in almost slow motion. It is very hard to decide but I feel that of all the Le Carrè novels I have read, this is probably my favourite. If you read it, you would know why.
Rating:
Summary: A spy novel you will come back to...
Review: I've just finished reading SCHOOLBOY for perhaps the fifth time & find myself enjoying it just as much as I did to begin with. Part of the pleasure of a good LeCarre is the remarkable depth of his characters -the feeling that one is dealing with real people with all their faults and strengths. Beyond this however is the feeling of authenticity that leCarre brings to his landscapes and to his times. Here we can feel that we are actually in London, and Hong Kong, and Cambodia during that strange Spring of 1975 when thirty years of war were finally drawing to their chaotic close. In Smiley LeCarre has created a truly remarkable figure -at once remote in his brilliance and yet at the same time so human in his flaws and failures. here is a man who will read Goethe in the original to his cheating wife, smoke out a Russian spy in China, salvage a failing Secret Service, and yet try & fail to keep to his diet. Jerry Westerby, The Honourable Schoolboy of the title is in many ways the Everyman of the piece, we side with him, root for him, fear for him, and at the end, well I won't give it away! This is a Thinking Person's spy novel that will do just fine as "aeroplane reading" or as a serious glance back at those awful 1970's...
Rating:
Summary: one of the best books on Hong Kong
Review: I've never read any of the other Smiley books --- or any other LeCarre books for that matter -- but I found the Honourable Schoolboy stands on its own as one of the best novels ever about Hong Kong. The pace can be maddening at times, which I'm sure is quite intentional, to reflect Smiley's own personality and style. But the novel is as beautiful and as scarred as its landscapes. Westerby is someone to fall in love with.
Rating: 
Summary: Certainly an Honorable Schoolboy
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: Certainly an Honorable Schoolboy
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
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