A perfect spy

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John le Carré: A perfect spy (1986, Book Club Associates)

463 pages

English language

Published Dec. 15, 1986 by Book Club Associates.

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(1 review)

18 editions

One spy's life

Wow. This is not a 'spy novel'. This is a novel about a much more realistic spy (as I'd heard le Carre writes); no 007. It's a fantastically deep character study; you feel like you know Pym better than he knows himself. There is some plot tension, but mostly it's this fascinating, dense story of a life, one spy's life.

As an American, the British colloquialisms coupled with the unreliable narrator (in one POV) got me quite confused. I sorted it out later in the book.

Subjects

  • Missing persons -- Great Britain -- Fiction
  • Defectors -- Great Britain -- Fiction
  • Fathers and sons -- Great Britain -- Fiction