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Summary: Essential Le Carre
Review: John Le Carre's mistakes (e.g., "Naive and Sentimental Lover") are more interesting than most other writers' crowning achievements, but "Schoolboy" is as good an intrigue and adventure novel as one will ever find. Le Carre is the bravest popular novelist around. He panders to no one's politics; he doesn't care how much work a reader might normally choose to invest in a book; and he adheres to no formulae. You either trust him utterly, and let him take you where he's going, or you read Grisham. "Schoolboy" features a Le Carre regular character, George Smiley, and centers on a bit character from earlier work, Jerry Westerby. In a sense, the novel is a contrast between, on the one hand, the bluff, hearty, athletic, noble, and, well, superficially superficial Westerby; and on the other, the deepest and most complicated character in the genre, George Smiley. But there's so much more here: the contrast between Eastern and Western cultures; between England in its late-twentieth century posture and the then-seeming decline in influence of the U.S.; between the young Turks at the Circus and its old guard. What unites it all is Le Carre's remarkable gift at storytelling, dialogue, and character development. I read many authors in the intrigue, mystery, and crime fields. But they're all just faint echoes of Le Carre. If you want real gold, and not just cheap imitation, he's your man.
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Summary: No Big Deal - it's only the best spy novel of all time...
Review: Le Carre made his reputation on spy novels ("The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", "Smiley's People"), but look no further: this one is his masterpiece. The horrors of Cold War espionage - deception, blackmail, torture and murder - are all here, along with one of the most unlikely yet believable romances in spy fiction. The secondary characters are extraordinarily drawn, and the reader is relentlessly drawn into the story as loyalties are gradually stretched beyond the breaking point. And at the center of it all: Jerry Westerby - the unforgettable war correspondent/spy whose choices lead the reader to a place where we don't know who to root for anymore. Sound familiar? It's almost 30 years later, but this book may be surprisingly relevant to many readers. Le Carre's descriptions of Hong Kong, Tuscany, London and Vientiane offer a travelogue/time capsule of sorts - but the moral ambiguities of the shadow warriors and the choices they face - those dilemmas haven't changed much at all. If you can get past Le Carre's somewhat quirky prose (as this reviewer did, with a little bit of difficulty) the results are deeply satisfying and thought-provoking.
Rating:
Summary: No Big Deal - it's only the best spy novel of all time...
Review: Le Carre made his reputation on spy novels ("The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", "Smiley's People"), but look no further: this one is his masterpiece. The horrors of Cold War espionage - deception, blackmail, torture and murder - are all here, along with one of the most unlikely yet believable romances in spy fiction. The secondary characters are extraordinarily drawn, and the reader is relentlessly drawn into the story as loyalties are gradually stretched beyond the breaking point. And at the center of it all: Jerry Westerby - the unforgettable war correspondent/spy whose choices lead the reader to a place where we don't know who to root for anymore. Sound familiar? It's almost 30 years later, but this book may be surprisingly relevant to many readers. Le Carre's descriptions of Hong Kong, Tuscany, London and Vientiane offer a travelogue/time capsule of sorts - but the moral ambiguities of the shadow warriors and the choices they face - those dilemmas haven't changed much at all. If you can get past Le Carre's somewhat quirky prose (as this reviewer did, with a little bit of difficulty) the results are deeply satisfying and thought-provoking.
Rating:
Summary: LeCarre, The Thinking Man's Spy Master!
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 second 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 continues his marvelously convoluted narrative tracing the continuing history of the Smiley chronicles, a three volume spy novel treatise detailing the perfidy and treachery of the world of British intelligence. In "The Honourable Schoolboy", the instrument of Smiley's revenge against the legendary Karla, the Chief of the Soviet espionage effort, is one Jerry Westerby, a man who comprises such an amalgam of honor, evil, and rage that he is perhaps one of the most complex and yet completely believable characters to pop from LeCarre's fertile mind. Westerby is the old hand in the Far East, Smiley's eyes and ears, and the man George has placed to push the first domino spinning toward the eventual collapse of all the others in the vast Soviet spy network. Smiley is spinning the network in the aftermath of the uncovering of a Soviet mole deep within the Circus, the code name within the trade for the center of British Intelligence. As he probes the various aspects of the British network to discover the loci of damage and infiltration, Smiley picks the point of entry as Hong Kong, and no one is better suited to Smiley's complex undertaking that Jerry, a complicated, immensely intelligent, and yet absolutely dangerous and committed cold warrior who can be counted on to go the extra mile for the team and for Britian and the Queen. The plot is ingenious, intricate, and horrific in its human toll, played out against a landscape of the far-flung persons and places of the former British Empire. With Westerby, the 'honourable school boy' of the title, we embark 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!
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Summary: Le Carre's best, I have read it 3 times
Review: Of all of Le Carre's books, this is by far my favorite. Like his others it dishes up his fascinating circus of characters and conversation. Like the others it conveys the authentic tedium of Intelligence work for which I can vow from experience. But it also catches the mood and flavor and luscious ambiance of Southeast Asia at a watershed point of the Cold War. Those of us afflicted with le Mal Jaune, incurable nostalgia for Indochine, find it an indispensible potion. I have read it at least 3 times.
Rating:
Summary: A Classic...
Review: The Honourable Schoolboy is by far one the best spy stories ever written. The story is rich and complex and will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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Summary: Transcends the Genre
Review: The Honourable Schoolboy is much more than a spy novel, it is a fine work of literature and explores a wide thematic range -- class, race, family, love, revenge. I recommend reading the trilogy in order (beginning with Tinker, Tailor...) but this one stands on its own as well.
Rating:
Summary: The Honourable Schoolboy
Review: The Honourable Schoolboy is superb. Forget the "spy" genre it's categorized against. Ignore the (for me anyway) vapid liner notes about the "thrills and terror" of spys and their evil. Instead, bask in this marvelous writer's rich exploitation of the language and his delicious palette as he describes people in extraordinary circumstances attempting to deal with what we all face: our own weaknesses and emotions. Everytime I read this work, I'm struck by LeCarre's ability to depict the human condition so faithfully. Buy it. Read it. Then read it again and again. Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: 5 Spent Spies Against Asian Backdrop
Review: The Honourable Schoolboy is the fifth Le Carre novel featuring the enigmatic George Smiley. After unmasking the mole in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy Smiley is put in charge of the Circus, a position he should have had years ago based on merit. It appears that Smiley is one of many who were put out to pasture by Bill Haydon's nefarious activities over the previous years. Smiley, starting with his closest circle, must work backwards ruthlessly discarding people with questionable loyalty or little competence and finding others like himself who were purged by Haydon. In the process he finds Jerry Westerby living quietly in Italy. Westerby is resurrected and sent to Hong Kong to foil Smiley's arch-nemesis Karla. The result is an epic tour de force with Westerby's journeys throughout South East Asia presenting a fascinating counterpoint to Smiley's group working inside the Circus. The Honourable Schoolboy contains a cast of fascinating characters. Smiley himself is the classic anti James Bond. He is middle-aged, plump and bespectacled. Unlike Bond he is not a ladies' man. In fact, his wife is serially unfaithful to him. In Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy his wife's infidelities were used by Karla to undermine him. Smiley has sacrificed whatever he had of a marriage to remove his vulnerability. Westerby is a stark contrast to Smiley; tall, athletic and a womanizer. In contrast to Smiley he lets his own torn emotions affect the way he does his work. There are also large assortments of supporting characters who are naive or scheming. It also features two of the most vicious characters ever employed in novels; Fawn and Tiu. Le Carre rarely showing any of their direct handiwork accentuates their viciousness. The novel has Le Carre's usual themes; betrayal, misdirected love and the use of an opponent's human vulnerability against him. The betrayals in The Honourable Schoolboy towards the end are perhaps the most multi-layered and intense of any Le Carre novel. If the reader wants a James Bond type ending with Bond having killed the enemy and gotten the girl, The Honourable Schoolboy should be skipped. Le Carre's novels are of "the no good deed goes unpunished school". However, he is extremely adept at revealing the story details much like peeling the layers of an onion. His characters whether good or evil, most being somewhere in between, are fascinating and believable. The insider's knowledge of espionage shines through as always. The Honourable Schoolboy also contrasts the East with the West. The fall of Cambodia and Vietnam are especially poignant backdrops to the story. Perhaps it is difficult to understand in this day what the cold war environment was like. It's instructive to read a novel like The Honourable Schoolboy that was written a quarter of a century ago to understand. The novel contains a lot and probably requires several readings to thoroughly appreciate all the nuances. However, based on the first reading The Honourable Schoolboy is superb.
Rating: 
Summary: Schoolboy, Smiley, Drake & Nelson Ko - What Characters!
Review: The story begins in mid 1974 with the pullout of intelligence operatives from Hong Kong, for fear of the how much was compromised, following the uncovering of Bill Haydon as a Russian 'mole' at the highest levels of British Intelligence in London. If that sounds like it has the makings for an involved and intricate espionage thriller then that's only part of the story. It's not the plots or the politics that are the gems in Le Carre novels - it's the characters. Character development is his forte'. No character is as well developed or more complex than the awkward and unlikely superspy George Smiley. On the other hand no character is as simple to get a grip on as the central character - Jerry Westerby, whose case name - "The Honourable Schoolboy" defines and contains him perfectly. Smiley as head of the Service sends Westerby east to Hong Kong following the trail left by Haydon. The target - two Chinese brothers supposedly in the employ of his arch nemesis 'Karla'. Along the way Le Carre lets us peek at ex-colonial life in East Asia and he misses no opportunity to tweak the nose of the serious British Civil Service.
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