Twenty years ago, started to read this but ended up throwing it at the wall around page 30.

Saw film. Loved the actors in it.

Read book aloud with Dee... light beginning to dawn.

Hard time knowing diff between what is British, what is spy talk, what is something I should have remembered, what is intended to be mysterious, and so on. Definition of "Babe-in-the-woods": Thom Dunn attempting to read the quintessential spy novel.

I have read perhaps a dozen of Le Carre's novels over hte last 50 years. All require patience due to their shadowy complexity, but offer great rewards in their infinite shades of gray. IMO, the best of the genre!
Jan and I loved the film, too--(also "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold," with Richard Burton!).

Philip wrote: "I have read perhaps a dozen of Le Carre's novels over hte last 50 years. All require patience due to their shadowy complexity, but offer great rewards in their infinite shades of gray. IMO, the b..."

The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and the film are clear, spare, magical, IMO. Also good is The Looking-Glass War, with its now familiar theme of WWII left-over spy groups out of touch yet refusing to stand down.