Rating: 
Summary: One of the greats.
Review: If you've read this masterpiece by LeCarrè then you would know why I think he is the greatest spy novelist ever. The story is one of treachery in the "Circus"(which LeCarrè dubiously calls his Secret Service). LeCarrè having worked in the Secret Service (both MI5 and the SIS) for 15 years knows all about treachery. Indeed his Father, a ritzy-glitzy con man, betrayed him. Having experinced all this, you get in this novel what most others don't have:authenticity. George Smiley: "One of London's meek who do not inherit the Earth", "small, podgy and at best middle-aged". Is a seemingly unremarkable character. Not particularly great-looking or glamorous or physically well built or anything else. The worst insult he can hurl upon a man is "you pompous featherhead". Yet beyond this inconspicuos shroud lies "one of the no-men of no-man's land". He spends his time trying to forget all that he has learnt for they are only painful ones (his wife having cheated on him numerous times, having innocent people killed, meeting traitors who he was intimate with) but his past comes back to him in that a few fellow "old Circus"'s approach him with a request: find the mole that has buried himself deep into the upper echelons of the Circus for 30 years. It is a trademark of LeCarrè's that he tends never to give us a happy ending in his novels but that is not him being cynical merely trying to communicate to us his messages about Life. Smiley has all of his old friends under suspicion: Roy Bland, Toby Esterhase, Percy Allelline, and Bill Haydon. We find Smiley going over some very, very old ground with some very painful and unhappy memories. When Smiley catches the mole we are left breathless at his skill and his wonderful ability. Yet we do sympathise with him in that he has to unmask his very own friend, someone he has worked with for decades. This is certainly not LeCarrè's best (I reserve that praise for "The spy who came in from the Cold") but it is still a masterpiece. Some of LeCarrè's "worst" novels are better than some authors' best and that's a fact. LeCarrè is definetely one of the great writers alive or dead, the great social historian of our times. His spy novels are merely a disguise for his messages about Life. Sometimes I found myself simply re-reading some sentences merely for their beauty, LeCarrè's use of language is eloquent. He is not the sort of commercial, predictable author and he is not particularly easy to read(especially his later novels) but at the end everything turns out so simple and flawless yet you are left wanting more. This is one of the greatest spy novels ever and LeCarrè is one of the greates novelists ever. Read it and enjoy.
Rating: 
Summary: Certainly a Tinker
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: Le Carre's espionage masterpiece.
Review: In TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, John Le Carre accomplishes the rare and admirable feat of transcending the genre and his customary themes of duty, duplicity and the ambiguities involved in a profession where violence, mendacity and amorality are intrinsic and necessary. At the center of the novel is the unprepossessing scholar George Smiley who reluctantly accepts the task of unmasking a high-level double agent who has burrowed (hence, the term "mole")into the highest echelon of the British Intelligence Service and is wrecking havoc not only with its own operations but with credibility in partnership with the increasingly powerful and arrogant American CIA. "The sun" is, indeed, setting on the British Empire and it is Smiley"s job to both "gracefully" superintend this historical reality with the thankless job of tracking down a gifted traitor. (The Kim Philby "mythology" is focal here) Le Carre has written in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy" a piece of literature with the murky world of espionage as background. His major concern, however, is an exploration of the human condition in its typical state of conflict and self-created confusion. In my estimate, Smiley is one of the most complex, engaging and compassionate characters in modern literature. Graham Greene attempted such characterizations in his "entertainments"/adventure stories; yet I do not feel any of his characters are as memorable as this...seemingingly...unlikely spy master. TTSS is, of course, the first in a wonderfully written trilogy (The Honorable Schoolboy is probably least successful but most recognizable as a tale of calculated vengeance and the show-down story is SMILEY'S PEOPLE where the scholar/spy faces down his arch-enemy in the KGB). Sir Alec Guiness played Smiley in the BBC tele-video of the story and is magnificent in conveying the humanity of a hero..cuckholded by a family friend and colleague...whose duty requires him to guard this humanity at personal and historical (the passing of power to the USA)crossroads in the face of class vanity, political realities and very recognizable individual weakness (and an ultimate act of treachery). The other two books are good. TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY, however, is...I believe...a masterpiece of literature. It has virtually nothing in common with stories written by "thriller" writers like Fleming, Deighton, Clancy or Forsyth. The works of the latter are...usually...exciting and highly entertaining. George Smiley, however, has much more in common with Sir Thomas More than 007 or even Le Carre's own Alec Leamas (The Spy Who came in From the Cold). If you are a reader who enjoys the "spy" novel, this will satisfy you with its revelations about how a "secret service" probably works. If you are a student of literature, you may find this work ranking with the best written in modern British literature......
Rating:
Summary: Incredible Stuff!
Review: Le Carre is the best spy novelist ever and truly a modern master of literature. Tinker Tailor takes the reader on a journey through the murky labyrinths of british intelligence as the antihero Smiley, a plump, confused, betrayed, but deceptively steely and intelligent spy, ferrets out a mole burrowed into the highest levels of British Intelligence by his Soviet nemesis, Karla. The themes of betrayal, downfall, and the inescapable immorality of spying permeate this finely written book, while the challenge of discovering, with Smiley, who the mole is, captures the reader from the start. Le Carre's character developement is superior to almost any writer, living or dead, and the complexity of the mole, Smiley, Connie Sachs, and a host of other characters adds another superior facet. Finally, Le Carre's use of wonderfully quaint terminology, with "moles", "legmen", "burrowers", "the circus", and others making frequent appearances, spices up the book. The best spy book I have ever read, and I have read every book by Forsyth, Higgings, Clancy, and Craig, and almost every Ludlum. This may be a great spy book, but it is also an outstanding work of literature, like its two successors, and is a classic in every respect. Everyone should read it who has a mind and appreciation for a nobly done turn of phrase. However, this book isn't for the James Bond Boom Boom kiss the girl and fly off sort- requires thought!
Rating:
Summary: A Map of Human Weakness
Review: Le Carre's talent always staggers me, but this is a masterpiece by even his standard. It's the greatest of spy novels, one based in human weakness rather than pyrotechnics. The book provides a wealth of technique without lapsing into the pedantic, but it also lays bare the near-incestuous talent pool of the British, the private politics of those who claim to have none, and the unspoken loves that sometimes prove more powerful than either. As a mystery, it's surgically precise. Intense, tense, oddly funny at moments, and haunting afterward.
Rating:
Summary: The First Of His Fabulous Spy Chronicle Trilogy!
Review: Like most of the best-selling works emanating from the unchallenged master of the intelligent spy thriller John LeCarre, this is in reality 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 first 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 initiates 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 "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", once-cashiered intelligence expert George Smiley is called unofficially out of retirement to vet the suspects of passing British intelligence to the Russians by way of a deep-rooted mole with the Circus, the trade-name for British Intelligence. Once engaged, Smiley's ministrations are thrust toward unraveling the morass of conflicting evidence and false leads into a tapestry of meaningful clues. Much of the upper hierarchy within the Circus constitute the list of most likely suspects, so George has to proceed carefully, cautiously, and yet deliberately toward the truth, whatever it may be. Given Smiley's past association and personal relationships with each of the protagonists, including one who cuckolded him by having a fling with George's now estranged wife, keeping the investigation on its deadly track is a delicate trick with many wild yet plausible and ingenious twists and turns. It is also the first of the several steps he must take to exact his revenge against the legendary Karla, the Chief of the Soviet Covert Espionage Bureau. So, as the he and his chosen covert investigation team begins to unravel the many points of light this careful sifting of signs through tradecraft, there is a number of levels of intelligence, motives, and intents all operating at once, 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: Great, but not Le Carre's best
Review: Many readers seem to share the opinion that TTSS and Smiley's People are Le Carre's two best books. I would only point out two weaknesses in TTSS which make it, in my opinion, the second best. Unlike the run of the mill thriller, Le Carre's best books have not had to rely on dramatic scenes. TTSS does end on a slightly more dramatic note than Smiley's People. The boarding-school setting for TTSS provides an ideal atmosphere for a slow confluence of information that constantly gets more and more interesting. Yet, Le Carre has to introduce a boy, a curious boy through whose eyes things are revealed to the reader as necessary. I found this device a little contrived. Compare this to Smiley's People, where once again the story shapes up from bits of information and hints. But there is no redundancy. No character whose existence is not dictated solely by the plot. In TTSS, the plot does not need the boy. The writer does. 5 stars nevertheless.
Rating:
Summary: Left it on the subway
Review: Nearly halfway through this book and I couldn't keep the characters straight, couldn't tell who was speaking, or if the action was set in the past or present. Did I need to read a prequel? I'm no wimp, having read War and Peace with clarity and enjoyment, but I just gave up. Realizing this book was filling me with dread, I left it on the subway.
Rating:
Summary: Left it on the subway
Review: Nearly halfway through this book and I couldn't keep the characters straight, couldn't tell who was speaking, or if the action was set in the past or present. Did I need to read a prequel? I'm no wimp, having read War and Peace with clarity and enjoyment, but I just gave up. Realizing this book was filling me with dread, I left it on the subway.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful characters, thick plot
Review: One of Le Carre's masterpieces, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is much more than a popcorn espionage novel. The characters are vibrant, and the setting is very good. I enjoyed the seemingly bumbling George Smiley, a British ex-spy who's actually sharp as a needle. When the Service thinks it's been pentrated by a Soviet mole, they called in George, whom they fired years ago for a fiasco in Czeckoslovakia. (Smiley's boss had embarked on a small private war there, without authorization or reason, and had caused quite a disruption.) Smiley digs through mounds of files and old briefings by night, searching for the clues that will lead him to the mole. The plot is very well done. My favorite part of Tinker Tailor, however, is the brilliant characterization. I can almost smell the people on the pages. Connie, an eccentric old lady reminscing about her days in British Intelligence (the Circus), an emotional and unfortuate woman who never quite grew up; Peter Guillam, the impatient, embattled and embittered spy who drags Smiley back in to the Circus; Jim Prideaux, the strong-as-an-ox victim of Czeckoslovakia, shot and wounded in the back, the master of the game who hides as a teacher at a boys prep school and charms the students earning himself the honor of a nickname (Rhino); Roach, a fat, athsmatic boy at the prep school who is enchanted with Rhino, loves him and misses him dearly when school lets out, worries about him, and later sees him bury a handgun in the garden, eventually convincing himself that the gun was only a dream. There are scores of others, just as real. The thick plot and wonderful characters of John Le Carre's first Smiley novel make it a delight to read.
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