Rating: 
Summary: Driftwood on the Sea of Life
Review:
John Le Carré writes in the same vein time and time again. This does not mean he is repeating himself or his stories are boring, just a bit predictable. He does take and show the spy world at it's worst, but he also gives you the sense of how hard it is to know the difference between good and evil in this special world. This is an old story that is outdated, but that does not make the spy world any different today than then.
Rating: 
Summary: The Hard, Cold Truth
Review: A marvelous, bitter novel of ad hoc espionage and bureaucratic intrigue--though it dates from the Cold War, its ethical concerns are as timely as ever. The quality of writing throughout far surpasses the requirements of genre and the spine-chilling conclusion is not likely to be forgotten.A previous review here demands refutation. A so-called "Constant Reader" insists that "Le Carre knows nothing about espionage, foreign affairs, international relations, spy technology etc." "Constant Reader"'s argument? "In the 1960's Czechoslovakia was surrounded by the world's most sophisticated security perimeter.... To Western espionage, however, this iron curtain was easily permeable; high-tech espionage aircraft and satellites routinely overflew Soviet [sic] territory, mapping government installations with a precision far greater than any earth-bound surveyor.... [I]n [Le Carre's] world the Czech border has a chicken-wire fence guarded by local boys with rusty Mannlichers. Aerial spying is carried out by airline pilots, presumably leaning out of their jets to snap a few candids with concealed polaroids!" A few comments in response: A) The U-2 spy plane and Corona spy satellite were U.S. programs--Britain's aerial espionage technology lagged well behind in the mid-60's. "Constant Reader" imagines a "Western espionage" monolith that did not exist. While the U.S. and Great Britain were, of course, close allies, their interests were by no means identical and their intelligence agencies were not joined at the hip. "The Looking Glass War"--which, of course, concerns (fictional!) operations by British intelligence--includes passages offering explicit rationale for not immediately involving the U.S., thus necessitating the use of relatively primitive information-gathering techniques. B) Aside from the political issues "Constant Reader" seems unconscious of, the technology referred to would have been completely irrelevant to the mission described in the latter half of the book--the identification and detailed description of a well-cloaked arsenal of tactical, medium-range rockets (not the large ballistic weapons the U-2 and Corona excelled at sighting)--"what they look like, where they are, and above all who mans them"...that is, precisely the sort of job for which only an "earth-bound surveyor" would do. C) The suspected rocket site, and thus the critical, climactic action in the book, is located in East Germany. The entire book is concerned with gathering information on and infiltrating East Germany. There is not a single mention of Czechoslovakia in all of "The Looking Glass War." Not one. Did "Constant Reader" even read it? Don't be dissuaded from reading it yourself.
Rating:
Summary: Classic Le Carre
Review: I had to write due to the negative reviews being placed. While the story line itself may seem a little bit unfeasible, it very often is more closely aligned to governments than we think. Some argue that a government would not do that to one of its' men, however the U.S. sort of did that in the Bay of Pigs. I won't even go into Vietnam! Basically this is typical le Carre. The thing that keeps me coming back is that he never ends things the way you want. You don't get a warm feeling like with Clancy. Real Life-I love it.
Rating:
Summary: Infighting and tragedy in a Cold War espionage setting.
Review: I read "Looking Glass War" several years ago and was jolted at how realistic the people and the departments seemed. The tragedy of the story stayed with me for a long time. Human ambition, the senselessness of bureaucracy and the infighting among goverment departments --- these are some aspects explored here in a 'spy-story' setting. The interactions seemed very real; the bizarreness of the events very much like real life. Of course this is more of a serious novel than a thriller, as expected of John le Carre. The mood is gray and cluody, and the ending is distressing. The story follows a young employee of an almost-defunct intelligence department. He flies to Scandinavia and finds the local police more savvy than himself. The characters deceive others and themselves in daily-life ways. They prepare to send a poorly-trained man of forty into East Germany as a spy. At the final betrayal, our protagonist cries in anger and shame. Those reading this book for getting kicks out of following the heroic adventures of a glamorous spy, sent to do the right thing by the right side, will be disappointed. There's no clear distinction between good and bad sides. The enemy people (east germans) are all too human. As in life, much is ambivalent. This is not an action-packed thriller to make a feel-good hollywood movie from. Rather, it's an excellent addition to human literature, a testament to the tragedies of individuals caught between government institutions of the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: Infighting and tragedy in a Cold War espionage setting.
Review: I read "Looking Glass War" several years ago and was jolted at how realistic the people and the departments seemed. The tragedy of the story stayed with me for a long time. Human ambition, the senselessness of bureaucracy and the infighting among goverment departments --- these are some aspects explored here in a 'spy-story' setting. The interactions seemed very real; the bizarreness of the events very much like real life. Of course this is more of a serious novel than a thriller, as expected of John le Carre. The mood is gray and cluody, and the ending is distressing. The story follows a young employee of an almost-defunct intelligence department. He flies to Scandinavia and finds the local police more savvy than himself. The characters deceive others and themselves in daily-life ways. They prepare to send a poorly-trained man of forty into East Germany as a spy. At the final betrayal, our protagonist cries in anger and shame. Those reading this book for getting kicks out of following the heroic adventures of a glamorous spy, sent to do the right thing by the right side, will be disappointed. There's no clear distinction between good and bad sides. The enemy people (east germans) are all too human. As in life, much is ambivalent. This is not an action-packed thriller to make a feel-good hollywood movie from. Rather, it's an excellent addition to human literature, a testament to the tragedies of individuals caught between government institutions of the twentieth century.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: I was surprised when I read the negative reviews on this book... I read it several years ago and found it very believeable. Human greed, the senselessness of bureaucracy and the competition between goverment departments... these are some of the very real things that are explored in the book in a 'spy-story' setting. Of course it is more of a serious novel than a thriller... those reading it for getting kicks out of following the heroic adventures of a glamorous spy will be disappointed. The people are human, with real peoples' weaknesses and faults, and the enemy people (east germans) are all too human. I can understand the average thriller fan's not liking this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious from the right perspective
Review: In the 1960's Czechoslovakia was surrounded by the world's most sophisticated security perimeter. Not only were there the usual barbed-wire topped chain-link fences, minefields, guard towers and patrols of the brutal Czech security police, there was actually a DOUBLE border, intended to trap would-be escapees from the grim regime of Communism with an inhuman face. To Western espionage, however, this iron curtain was easily permeable; high-tech espionage aircraft and satellites routinely overflew Soviet territory, mapping government installations with a precision far greater than any earth-bound surveyor. This only relates to 'Le Carre' by default; in his world the Czech border has a chicken-wire fence guarded by local boys with rusty Mannlichers. Aerial spying is carried out by airline pilots, presumably leaning out of their jets to snap a few candids with concealed polaroids! OK, so Le Carre knows nothing about espionage, foreign affairs, international relations, spy technology etc. We're not reading Tom Clancy here! Le Carre's strength is atmosphere, a kind of hopeless despair over human relations and government bureaucracy that any would-be writer can relate to. Le Carre's characters live in a world of illusions, their lives governed by the political infighting of government departments which are far removed from the real world. I would agree with other reviewers who suggested reading James Bond novels if you want something a little closer to the reality of Cold War espionage. Read Le Carre for his Kafka-esque atmosphere.
Rating:
Summary: a satire
Review: It is a truism that most generals spend their efforts preparing for the last war. The Maginot Line of the 1930s would have been a wonderful defense against the German invasion of 1914. It was completely ineffective in 1939. In Looking Glass, a British military intelligence department left over from WWII, by 1962 a complete dinosaur, sought any project which could justify its continued existence. Having found (it thought) such a project, it guarded it jealously from the enemy, i.e., British political intelligence. It had no active operatives so rerecruited a 40ish WWII agent and retrained him using tapes dubbed from old 78RPM records and gave him an inaccurate map, vague instructions and a 40 lb. WWII radio to lug into East Germany where he killed a border guard,lurched bizarrely about the countryside and sent periodic radio messages, which were naturally intercepted by the East Germans, who were completely mystified until an old sergeant had a light bulb go on in his head and remembered how British spies sent messages on their crystal radios during the war. The novel ends when responsible intelligence people in London awaken to what has been done by the dinosaurs and immediately cut bait to try to preserve deniability of official British involvement. The novel satirizes not only the intelligence bumbling (which I suspect LeCarre had endured) but also the WWII spy novel genre.
Rating:
Summary: very slow moving
Review: No, I wasn't looking for something in the James Bond vein, but Le Carre always seems to be wishing he's writing in a different genre. The unrelievedly mournful tone of conversations and all personal encounters is not only a little wearing, but also unrealistic - people just aren't this humorless in real life...or are they?
Rating: 
Summary: Weak and Tragic
Review: Not great LeCarre, but perhaps it is a good looking glass hold up to our own Cold War policy.
| 
