Helen’s review of A Perfect Spy > Likes and Comments
227 likes · Like
Sketchbook wrote: "Neat review.
What is 'normal'? Acceptable/appropriate, sub words? Havent read, so dont know context."
Yes. Acceptable and appropriate are good substitute words.
Zowie! Fantasticky response! Now I will read book.
Thanks, Sketchbook. Excellent question. God knows, I wasn't raised around very much that was normal. Little Magnus moves from house to house, cared for by a rotating bevy of Lovelies and endearingly colorful con men. His mother is depressed beyond words, and his mother's family distrusts him. The woman he loves best is his father's lover, a WW2 Jewish refugee who can't live with her guilt after surviving when the rest of her family has been killed. His father cheats poor people out of what little they have, and lies to his son about what he does.
Normal can be a lot of things. But for a child, essentially, it means someone who loves that child, and who makes the child feel loved. Someone who cares for that child more than they care for themselves. Someone who doesn't use them for nefarious purposes, manipulate them emotionally, or tell them that right is wrong and wrong is right.
I'm gonna go with that. Go read the book!
P.S. I had to repost it after accidentally deleting it. Sorry!
Thanks for saying what I would like to have said myself.
Thank you, Jason. This book has a powerful hold on me.
I know. Crazy. But it explains a lot. People who have something to hide--and thus, become good at hiding things--are natural spies.
I'm going to read Eric Ambler next--Alan Furst recommends him all the time.
I also like the spy stories that focus on professors, doctors, journalists who use their work as a cover. Helen MacInnes, married to prof Gilbert Highet, wrote some dilly stories in 40s-50s. Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford played prof and wife asked to do allied favors in Europe pre 1940, as indeed author-husby did, in "Above Suspicion." Movie critics, btw, said Joan Crawford didn't look very much like a professor's wife.
Yes, I agree. I think that's one of the things I like so much about Alan Furst--none of his protagonists are ever really spies. Helen MacInnes? I'll have to look for her work!
She was very popular for some years in a "fun" way. Her Google bio is interesting.
Great review. I totally agree that this is his best. There are a few others that are close (and there are always "moments" in all of them), but this one is beyond genre.
Helen your review is good. I enjoyed reading this book and LeCarre is a brilliant spy story writer.
Thank you, Sheila! I agree, LeCarre is brilliant. If "Perfect Spy" wasn't a spy book, it would still be great literature.
I've started reading the book - my first le Carré by the way - and already it's unputdownable. Your observations, without giving away the plot, have given me a fresh perspective. As I had long suspected, most spy novels are either semi-autobiographical or are variations on events witnessed by former agents turned writers. Thank you!
What a wonderfully written review. I hope I enjoy the book as much as the review. It's saying a lot to offer this as a stand out in all of Le Carre's great work. It will be next on my list.
This is a very good review, thank you.
I think every story talks about father and son, and it's really true that everyone sees the world in the same way it was teached by his parents, by the way-of-life of them.
I started this book fifteen years ago but, soon, I left it because it didn't catch me, I wasn't able to understand the story. I know it has something for me, and I decided to restart again later.
It remained in my library. I saw it once a time, from a distance. He was waiting for me, and me for it, too.
This time I met it again, and I knew that I would finished it.
In the meantime, I became father four times and I published ten books: so I think that is the key.
P.S.: excuse me for my italian-English!
Thank you for a genuinely sincere, heartfelt review . You help me remember why reading Le Carre , or for that matter reading any well written book, is one of life's greatest pleasures.
Thank you Helen. I started this book and found it difficult to get my head around the events. Your review helps me focus on the areas of the novel I will have to pay more attention to.
A fabulous review, Helen. I've been meaning to read some of Mr. Le Carre's work since ages - and you just may have convinced me that 'A Perfect Spy' ought be my first read of his :) To combine literary excellancy with fiction well-done is a treat any reader ought look forward to. As I do :) A lovely day to you!
I’m in the midst of reading this novel now. Things are starting to wrap up. I have read only one other of Mr. Carré’s novels but this one is, as you put it, is a masterpiece. You wrote a brilliant review and didn’t give one iota away. When this is completed, I will be out there getting another.
Lovely review. Can't wait to get started
A beautifully written review. And, yes, I agree with you: "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" is superior in terms of it being a spy novel. By the way, I wrote a novella called "European Son" and would be curious to know what you think of it.
back to top
date
newest »
newest »
Sketchbook wrote: "Neat review.What is 'normal'? Acceptable/appropriate, sub words? Havent read, so dont know context."
Yes. Acceptable and appropriate are good substitute words.
Zowie! Fantasticky response! Now I will read book.
Thanks, Sketchbook. Excellent question. God knows, I wasn't raised around very much that was normal. Little Magnus moves from house to house, cared for by a rotating bevy of Lovelies and endearingly colorful con men. His mother is depressed beyond words, and his mother's family distrusts him. The woman he loves best is his father's lover, a WW2 Jewish refugee who can't live with her guilt after surviving when the rest of her family has been killed. His father cheats poor people out of what little they have, and lies to his son about what he does. Normal can be a lot of things. But for a child, essentially, it means someone who loves that child, and who makes the child feel loved. Someone who cares for that child more than they care for themselves. Someone who doesn't use them for nefarious purposes, manipulate them emotionally, or tell them that right is wrong and wrong is right.
I'm gonna go with that. Go read the book!
P.S. I had to repost it after accidentally deleting it. Sorry!
Thanks for saying what I would like to have said myself.
Thank you, Jason. This book has a powerful hold on me.
You really do seem to have an expertise in high end literary espionage: Greene; Le Carre; and and Furst. It's a genre I want to read more of. I did not know that about Le Carre's mother and father--fascinating.
I know. Crazy. But it explains a lot. People who have something to hide--and thus, become good at hiding things--are natural spies. I'm going to read Eric Ambler next--Alan Furst recommends him all the time.
I also like the spy stories that focus on professors, doctors, journalists who use their work as a cover. Helen MacInnes, married to prof Gilbert Highet, wrote some dilly stories in 40s-50s. Fred MacMurray and Joan Crawford played prof and wife asked to do allied favors in Europe pre 1940, as indeed author-husby did, in "Above Suspicion." Movie critics, btw, said Joan Crawford didn't look very much like a professor's wife.
Yes, I agree. I think that's one of the things I like so much about Alan Furst--none of his protagonists are ever really spies. Helen MacInnes? I'll have to look for her work!
She was very popular for some years in a "fun" way. Her Google bio is interesting.
Great review. I totally agree that this is his best. There are a few others that are close (and there are always "moments" in all of them), but this one is beyond genre.
Helen your review is good. I enjoyed reading this book and LeCarre is a brilliant spy story writer.
Thank you, Sheila! I agree, LeCarre is brilliant. If "Perfect Spy" wasn't a spy book, it would still be great literature.
I've started reading the book - my first le Carré by the way - and already it's unputdownable. Your observations, without giving away the plot, have given me a fresh perspective. As I had long suspected, most spy novels are either semi-autobiographical or are variations on events witnessed by former agents turned writers. Thank you!
What a wonderfully written review. I hope I enjoy the book as much as the review. It's saying a lot to offer this as a stand out in all of Le Carre's great work. It will be next on my list.
This is a very good review, thank you.I think every story talks about father and son, and it's really true that everyone sees the world in the same way it was teached by his parents, by the way-of-life of them.
I started this book fifteen years ago but, soon, I left it because it didn't catch me, I wasn't able to understand the story. I know it has something for me, and I decided to restart again later.
It remained in my library. I saw it once a time, from a distance. He was waiting for me, and me for it, too.
This time I met it again, and I knew that I would finished it.
In the meantime, I became father four times and I published ten books: so I think that is the key.
P.S.: excuse me for my italian-English!
Thank you for a genuinely sincere, heartfelt review . You help me remember why reading Le Carre , or for that matter reading any well written book, is one of life's greatest pleasures.
Thank you Helen. I started this book and found it difficult to get my head around the events. Your review helps me focus on the areas of the novel I will have to pay more attention to.
A fabulous review, Helen. I've been meaning to read some of Mr. Le Carre's work since ages - and you just may have convinced me that 'A Perfect Spy' ought be my first read of his :) To combine literary excellancy with fiction well-done is a treat any reader ought look forward to. As I do :) A lovely day to you!
I’m in the midst of reading this novel now. Things are starting to wrap up. I have read only one other of Mr. Carré’s novels but this one is, as you put it, is a masterpiece. You wrote a brilliant review and didn’t give one iota away. When this is completed, I will be out there getting another.
Lovely review. Can't wait to get started
A beautifully written review. And, yes, I agree with you: "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" is superior in terms of it being a spy novel. By the way, I wrote a novella called "European Son" and would be curious to know what you think of it.
What is 'normal'? Acceptable/appropriate, sub words? Havent read, so dont know context.