The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

 

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After a run of period classics in Moby Dick and Orlando, I determined that the next novel I read had to be completely different; a real turnaround from what I’d gotten used to. So, off the shelf came John le Carre’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. 

I found this book a challenge. Perhaps I am just not particularly geared towards the spy novel –though to be fair I have not exposed myself to very many- but I found that I had to read a little extra stuff (the introduction and the author’s note at the end) to really appreciate what this book was and what it was doing. I can’t honestly say that it’s now a favourite, but I absolutely can appreciate why this book is so celebrated within literary circles. 

The book tells the story of Alec Leamas, a tired and cynical member of the British Secret Service who has been spying in the shadows of the Berlin Wall for years. After so long a time out in the cold, Control finally wants to bring him in: after one last assignment. Convinced to turn double agent, Alec travels deep into the heart of Communist Germany, smoothly eluding the wrong people and rubbing shoulders with the right ones. But disaster strikes when another agent attempts to help a woman whom Alec has befriended, and a shocking truth about the wider game comes to light. 

Spy is probably most celebrated because it redefined the spy novel genre. Up until the 1960s, the spy was the suave and smooth-talking James Bond type of character who went on adventures with action and exciting high stakes. The stakes are indeed high in Spy, but the setting is nowhere near as glamorous. Set against the harsh and grey background of the Cold War, Spy depicts the world of spies and espionage as a horrible game of chess where everything from humanity, morals, ideals, and indeed life are expendable and can be bought or sold for the right price. There’s a high level of cynicism, both in the plot and the book’s protagonist.

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Alec Leamas is as far from a James Bond as one can get. Ragged, exhausted, dishevelled, and rough in every sense of the word, he is the protagonist that readers are saddled with, not emotionally attached to. The book’s central thrills and excitement do indeed come from the events that take place within its pages, which eventually all pool together to form the bigger picture. Given that the setting and characters are so sketchy to begin with, the reader takes all promises, events, and bouts of dialogue with a grain of salt, but even so it still comes a shock when the story –and the game- ends. 

Le Carre’s social commentary as well as some cheeky in-novel comments on the nature of the spy (both as a profession and a literary character) brings an extra level of intrigue to an already-heavily-laden black forest cake of a novel. This is definitely a book to read if you are into the spy genre.

Author: John le Carre, 1963

Published: V. Gollancz (London), 1963