Two thumbs up for A Perfect Spy by John Le Carré. Fiction.
A spy disappears. His handlers worry he is a turncoat, they argue, they investigate – but that is no more than a third of the text. The remainder is said spy in a rented room writing his life story, mostly centered around his larger-than-life con man father. Those sections dip into and out of first and third person, past and present tense, and it should not work but Le Carré is a genius. If you are expecting a spy novel, I would not recommend this; for a work of literary fiction in which the characters happen to be spies, I don’t think it can be beat.
Carver had listened. Carver continued to listen. He took Lederer through his conversation with Brotherhood and concluded that it should not have taken place and that Lederer has exceeded his competence. He did not say this to Lederer but he made note of it, and later that night in a separate telegram to the Agency’s personnel people he took care that this note was added to Lederer’s file. At the same time he accepted that Lederer might well have stumbled upon the truth, even if by the wrong route, and said this also. Thus Carver covered his back all ways, while at the same time knifing an unpleasant interloper. Never bad.
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