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The Looking Glass War  By  cover art

The Looking Glass War

By: John le Carré
Narrated by: Michael Jayston
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Publisher's summary

From the New York Times best-selling author of A Legacy of Spies. John le Carré’s new novel, Agent Running in the Field, is coming October 2019. "You are either good or bad, and both are dangerous". It would have been an easy job for the Circus: A can of film couriered from Helsinki to London. In the past the Circus handled all things political, while the Department dealt with matters military. But the Department has been moribund since the War, its resources siphoned away. Now, one of their agents is dead, and vital evidence verifying the presence of Soviet missiles near the West German border is gone. John Avery is the Department's younger member and its last hope. Charged with handling Fred Leiser, a German-speaking Pole left over from the War, Avery must infiltrate the East and restore his masters' former glory.

John le Carre's The Looking Glass War is a scorching portrayal of misplaced loyalties and innocence lost. With an introduction by the author.

©2013 John le Carre (P)2013 Penguin

What listeners say about The Looking Glass War

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

With nuance le Carré dissects a dying animal.

A minor le Carré on par with 'A Murder of Quality' and 'Call for the Dead', 'the Looking Glass War' explores the pathetic ineptitude, personal and professional betrayals, and the amoral universe of a former military espionage department that has seen better days. With nuance le Carré dissects a dying animal.

At times it felt like a strange combination of Philip Roth (see 'The Dying Animal') meets Robert Littell (see 'The Sisters'). By the end the reader feels betrayed, humanity feels soiled, and nothing at all has really changed.

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23 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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le Carre and Jayston a perfect fit

Michael Jayston pulls you into le Carre's captivating and painful description of the destruction that vain, small man leave in their wake as they try to recapture past glories.

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5 people found this helpful

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Spying through the looking glass

This is le Carré's fourth novel, published in 1965. The cold war rages but the action of WWII is within the memory of the protagonists. They look back upon it with nostalgia and try, with a combination of posturing and naiveté, to reanimate those past times of easy clarity when spying could be a matter of loyalty and of love. Which is not to say that there is a hint of sentimentality coming from the narrator. Quite the contrary. Ultimately, this is a tale of betrayal on so many levels. Le Carré is a writer of subtlety and nuance, and those qualities are on display in this novel.

Michael Jayston's reading is superb. Those who remember (as I do) the TV miniseries of "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "Smiley's People," will recall that Jayston played Peter Guillam opposite Alec Guinness' George Smiley. In Smiley's lines, Jayston has caught Guinness' speech patterns and intonations beautifully. It's subtle, but it's there. The effect, for anyone familiar with those superb dramatizations, is to add texture to an already fine recording.

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4 people found this helpful

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Character writing

It's sort of like Le Carré looked at Bond novels and said to himself, "I'll do the opposite of that." I approve of the results.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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take a happy pill already!

this outdoes A Spy Who Came in from the Cold for futility and bleakness to a degree that is straining credulity, patience and interest. we get it: the UK is small potatoes and the farmers are all fighting over the last few... the reader was competent, but I really didn't see the point of this book. i enjoy books driven by character, or 'slice of life' or plot-driven, but this failed to provide any point of ingress..

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4 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars
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Good but Smiley very small bit player

this is very good and again a stand alone type story though it does peripherally tie in with Smiley. I like the fact that not everything is spelled out for you, you have to think and pay attention. and the ending is a little ambiguous. there isn't a lot of shooting and blowing things up, it's more of a realistic chess game approach. hard to top In From the Cold. on to Tinker...

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Liked the previous books in the series more.

This is a slow moving story, that never really takes off. Glad to have read it, but hoping the next is a bit more like the earlier books in the series.

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2 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Prepare for Driveway Moments

My favorite Smiley novel by a nose, though Smiley hardly appears in it. Jayston's narration is perfect.

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    3 out of 5 stars
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Great dialogue

The dialogue is what makes le Carré novels so unique and believable. The plot for this one I found a little uninteresting, lacking suspense and direction. Nonetheless, I connected with the characters and am looking forward to the next Smiley novel…

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Audiobook > Physical Book?

Read a physical copy of this a few years ago, and I think I actually prefer this version. The acting is superb, and somehow helps establish the mood, the interpersonal tension and politics, as well as looming, brutal futility that my brain just wasn’t capable of last time. Highly recommended.

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