- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Sceptre (14 May 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0340993758
- ISBN-13: 978-0340993750
- Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 13 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 128,663 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
The Department has faded since the war, effectively mothballed, without agents or resources. But now, with intelligence of a possible missile threat, it again has a mission. This is a chance to prove its influence to those at the Circus, like George Smiley, who think the Department's time has passed. The opportunity to reclaim former glory cannot be missed - even though it means putting men's lives at desperate risk on foreign soil. THE LOOKING GLASS WAR ia a gripping story of the amorality of espionage - unflinching in its depiction of the men involved, who are as much full of vanity and fear as of selflessness and courage.
About the Author
John le Carre was born in 1931. His third novel, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, secured him a wide reputation which was consolidated by the acclaim for his trilogy Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honourable Schoolboy and Smiley`s People. His other novels include The Constant Gardener, Absolute Friends and The Mission Song. A Most Wanted Man is his twentieth novel.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A brilliant book. Absolutely gripping partly because of the nature of the story - spy fiction - but mainly because of the horrifying stupidity of the Circus higher echelons. It's all portrayed as a bit of a game, Boy's Own heroics, but instead of a grazed knee or a black eye, death and unintentional betrayal are the result. Nobody learns from what has happened, Smiley & Control keep a Godlike distance. There are no heroes, only a grim sort of Valley of Death idea where the only cost is to the poor deluded patriot. This seems more like condemnation than praise but the book is so well written, with such biting mordant humour, that it is a book I shall read again.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
There's a good deal written these days about how Le Carre isn't as good as he used to be, and this is usually put down to the fact that the cold war is over, so he hasn't anything to write about anymore. I partly agree with this opinion, since I think that the late cold war thrillers featuring Smiley as the protagonist are the best things he has done. However, revisiting Looking Glass War is a bit disillusioning for the Le Carre fan, as it doesn't stand up quite as well. There are good things about it. The analysis of the class system dominating the UK at that time makes you realise what a different place England was less than fifty years ago. Characters are usually extremely well drawn, and Le Carre builds up mood effectively, creating a tragic atmosphere of inevitability. Also, more than any other writer, Le Carre makes you realise what a shabby (to use a dated word) business spying really is. Overall, however, Looking Glass War falls short of being satisfying. For a start, and like the superior Spy Who Came in From the Cold, it is a very slight read. 90 per cent of it is build-up to a predictable and largely unsatisfying climax. The characters are nicely sketched, but the author can't settle on one protagonist, which, in a book this short, is fatal. First of all, it's Avery, the idealistic young newcomer in the spy department, who we are supposed to sympathise with, but he's so spineless and bland, that he's difficult to root for. He has a wife whom he ignores, but then the author does too, so we don't care much for her either. He has some sort of thing going with a secretary in the office, but we can't work out what exactly, because it's kept very tasteful and enigmatic. In the last third of the book, Le Carre, like the reader, gets bored with Avery and it's Leiser, the spy they've been training, who rightfully gets the centre stage. Up until then, everyone else has looked down on Leiser, because he is foreign, and not a gentleman, and we never know what he is thinking. Suddenly we are thrust into the cockpit of his mind and expected to sympathise with him. It's a lot to ask in the last two chapters. Basic book mechanics aside, the writing is generally pretty good, but at this stage in his career, Le Carre was obviously angling to be the next Graham Greene. The worst manifestations of this ambition come when hardened spying professionals start sounding like Auden poems in the middle of office meetings, talking about `love' and so forth: embarrassing to read, really. All that said, George Smiley is still Le Carre's most reliable party turn. Every time he walks into a scene, the book gets really interesting. Sadly, all told, there are only about five pages of Smiley in the whole of this novel, which isn't really enough to save it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
Yet another classic book ruined by poor - or absent - editing in the ebook edition. This book is rife with run-on sentances and paragraphs, making it difficult to read, and repeatedly throwing me out of the (otherwise gripping) story. The Penguin Classics editions of le Carre's earlier novels are much better presented - I'd save your money and wait for that one.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
The looking glass war
A book that has a strong sense of place particuarly in describing areas of London and Oxford. In addition the claustrophobia of the office environments is well realised. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Ricky
Le Carre as ever delivers with his usual aplomb.
Having watched Tinker Taylor et al read the hardback and paperback versions now reading some of the earlier works on Kindle. Read more
Published 12 months ago by V. L. Dacosta-greene
A Thin, Early Work that Shows His Strengths
"The Looking Glass War," published in 1965, was British spymaster John LeCarre's fourth published novel, coming right after Call for the Dead; A Murder of Quality; and, the big... Read more
Published on 16 Mar 2010 by Stephanie DePue
George Smiley returns to Germany
First published in 1965 after the worldwide success of "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold", Le Carré once more, in a sense, returns to WW II. Read more
Published on 7 Mar 2010 by P. A. Doornbos
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