A legacy worthy of a spy master
View(s):
British spymaster turned author, John le Carré, who completes 86-years on October 19, 2017, produces his 25th opus, A Legacy of Spies, the ninth in his George Smiley series, which one last read in his The Secret Pilgrim in 1990.
Last year he delivered his autobiography, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from my Life in 38-chapters, in identical tradition similar to his contemporary, Frederick Forsyth at age 77, in his twentieth and last tome, The Outsider, My Life in Intrigue in 2015 (Vide ST-Plus: 11 October, 2015: http://www.sundaytimes.lk/151011/plus/an-autobiography-as-fascinating-as-his-fiction-167133.html)
Legacy is a much-awaited comeback, serving as a prequel and delving into interesting insights of le Carré’s erstwhile masterpiece The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Graham Greene called The Spy, “The best spy story I have ever read,” and JB Priestley said: “Superbly constructed, with an atmosphere of chilly hell,” while Ian Fleming stated, “A very, very fine spy story.” Legacy also touches on some aspects of his trilogy The Quest for Karla. However, The Spy is a must read prior to anyone starting on the Legacy.
The Legacy is a firsthand account of onetime spook, Peter Guillam, now in his dotage. Living in retirement in Brittany, he used to serve le Carré’s anti-hero George Smiley in the British Secret Service, better known then as the Circus, now the HO or the Office. HO was then operated through two departments: Head of Joint Steering Bill Haydon and Head of Covert George Smiley under the Chief of Service called Control.
Children of three characters who lost their lives while serving British Intelligence, are arranging to bring about lawsuits against the Service and its mandarins on account of their parents’ deaths in the line of duty. The intricate plot in The Spy was codenamed Windfall in the early sixties when the Berlin Wall stood high dividing Germany. Windfall was mounted against the East German Intelligence Service (Stasi).
Peter Guillam is summoned to HO and confronted with the burning questions of “Individual accountability. The old problem of where obedience to superior orders stops, and responsibility for one’s individual actions begins… …You’re in the field. Head Office has given you the green light, but not everything goes to plan. Innocent blood is shed. You, or a colleague close to you, are perceived to have exceeded orders. Have you ever thought of a situation like that?”
In 265-pages, le Carré ensures the Legacy serves as a remarkable filler of loose ends, and a solid recap to a swell of incidents in and prior to The Spy, which the discerning le Carré buff will decidedly relish and put his long awaited anxieties to rest.
The Legacy also recounts Leamas’ and Guillam’s roles in Operation Jacknife in the mid-fifties across the Caucasus unto Russia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which backfires allegedly betrayed by the mole codenamed Gerald. Also, Leamas’ dramatic escape via East Germany, escorting the attractive Stasi sub-source Doris Carlotta Quinz née Gamp codenamed Tulip upto Prague, from where the infatuated Peter Guillam lovingly picks her up and flies via Paris to London.
With digressions into the investigations on Gerald in the Circus, one reads the abundant use of the F-word, which le Carré uses justifiably for the first time in dialogue. Amidst a classic economy of style in narration by Guillam, the intermittent classified reports between departments of the Circus are reproduced with a professionalism of which only le Carré is capable. George Smiley appears in just five pages at the tail end, notwithstanding several references having been made to him.
The Spy arguably outbeats spy stories in the genres of Somerset Maugham, Graham Greene, Eric Ambler, Len Deighton and Ian Fleming, while The Legacy rounds up on The Spy which has haunted readers for over five decades.
| Book Facts | |
| A Legacy Of Spies by John le Carre UK: Penguin Viking Hardback, Sep-2017: ISBN: 978-0-241-30854-7 Reviewed by Firoze Sameer |