The Looking Glass War

George Smiley, Book 4

De: John Le Carré

Narrado por: Simon Vance

John Le Carré dominates the espionage form as no other writer has since Eric Ambler was at his peak. —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

In years past, the Circus oversaw political matters while their counterpart, the Department, dealt with intelligence more military in nature. These days, however, the Circus' influence looms large, while the Department is relegated to the doldrums of bureaucracy and red tape.

With the Cold War at a fever pitch, though, a potential assignment is only ever one defector-turned-informant away. Alerted to the possibility of missile activity from the Soviets on the West German border, the long stagnant Department leaps at the chance to restore some of their cache in the intelligence community. Director Leclerc hunts down former field agent Fred Leiser and sends him beyond the wall to East Germany—tying the Department's fate to his.

The Looking Glass War follows the Circus' foil in the British intelligence community: the Department. With its nuanced portrayal of the nature of espionage—in all its contradictions—the fourth in John le Carré's George Smiley series is a compelling spy tale that brings the dangers of nostalgia front and center.

©2013 John Le Carré (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Loved this story

I've been making my way through all these books and I have to say this is maybe my favorite so far. I loved the incompetence of the military and the involvement of the circus. Smiley as always is a cold blooded bad ass. The writing is superb, and the narrator is also a personal favorite of mine

Masterpiece

This is the most moving spy novel I have ever read. It's so visceral, so honest, so raw. It's high art.

John LaCarré Classic Literature

In this fourth George Smiley novel, LaCarré carries on his descriptive nature and attention to the smallest details. They put the listener inside each scene, as though watching from the corner of the room, through your own looking glass, picking apart each character’s action while in anticipation for their next move.

What it's really like, not just entertainment

It's not for the easy thrills of reading a classic spy novel. It's for understanding the gritty realities underlying current spy industry and by extension, the military industrial complex. The novel reveals the hard truth of how government organizations can feed themselves on their own illusions, use people and lives as expendable capital, and be bumbling and incompetent. It is a sad commentary on how hollow the spy industry really is. And perhaps entire military and information cultures.

Le Carré himself says that, this novel is to de-glamorize the industry. To show how absolutely pointless and even destructive it is. How it takes our humanity as something like cannon fodder for a pointless war. But that is not entertainment; it is a cold stark reality. Hence, many reviewers do not like the novel.

It is important information, a reality we need to face.

It is a hard disheartening read, but worth it in order to see a side of "war" and "security" that is seldom portrayed.

A Gem

Delightful. A bitter-sweet concoction of tragedy and comedy. Never send a man to do a boy’s job, to twist an old saying. A bit more cynical than most of Le Carre’s stuff, I would say. But there is enough sadness and comedy to leaven the cynicism. Tempus fugit. The trick is to know when to give up and when to give in. There is a price to pay for hubris and staying in so long. Funny how the old Greek drama structure persists in modern writing. I would call this a masterpiece, but it would be trite and redundant for this master. I am glad I am reading his older works. This is a good introduction to the Circus and Smiley. The narration is impeccable and pleasant and the accents easy to accept. Highly recommended.

Tedious, skip this one

It is a long, long, drawn out tale of foolishness and incompetency with minimal cameo appearances by George Smiley. It is also a tragedy.

A long depressing saga with no redeeming plot, no interesting, tradecraft, and no, “action” to speak of.

I proceeded this lesson, with the first three John LeCarre books, which were excellent.

This one, is a clinker, pass it by and move onto the fifth one, which they made a movie out of. I haven’t listened to it yet, but it can’t help but be better than this.

Shoddy

The problem is not that it's too negative about spying, or not entertaining; it's that its badly written - phoned in, unbelievable. It's hard to believe that Le Carre wrote it - all of his talents rendered mediocre or worse. Not even AI is capable of something this poorly imagined.

I love his work as a whole; this one was a surprising disappointment

Excellent performance play Simon. Vance, unfortunately it comes to nothing as this is ridiculously plotted book

As I went through the book, I kept saying to myself will you please come to a point? This book is filled with so much full BS and phony pathos that you get impatient rather than involved

Misogynistic Language

The writing style shows its age in this book, especially in the descriptions of women or ascribing negative attributes to men- likening their behavior to that of a woman or girl. I was frustrated listening to the reading, glad that most fictional writing has moved on from such portrayals. Simon Vance is limited in his range of voices and does the book no favors with the Polish (?really) accented man, and the older men running the agents- it’s challenging to tell them apart.
It’s a piece of historical fiction, remember that when reading or listening. It’s not my favorite Jon Le Carre novel, it feels like it’s missing a beginning and an end, maybe that makes it more intriguing, I found it dissatisfying.