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I read Call for the Dead and unfortunately found it pretty boring. Do you think I would probably also find Smileys People boring?
by philosopher1234 4y ago
I read Call for the Dead and unfortunately found it pretty boring. Do you think I would probably also find Smileys People boring?
- Mizza 4y agoThe best is "The Spy Who Came In From the Cold". It's a short read but a wallop of an ending.
- thakoppno 4y agoInteresting I’m about eighty pages into it and was beginning to question the Le Carré hype.
- taude 4y agoHis style and pace is a lot different than the modern genre writers like Vince Flynn, Lee Child, and even Ludlum (though Ludlam was of similar age) which excel at fast plot driven stories. A lot of Le Carre's stuff is from the '60s and '70s, and I'm not sure how well it actually ages. (I haven't read him since 1990ish, and I've been wanting to read the Tinker series, just never got past the first chapter.) I remember that even the movie version of The Russia house was a little slow, and it came out on the tail end of the cold war era.
- ghaff 4y agoI admit I was always much more in the Ludlum camp when I was reading the genre 20-30 years ago. I've read Le Carre and watched the films but, while I could appreciate what his admirers were saying, I never really got into him.
- jhbadger 4y agoLudlum's books are pure escapism, similar to the James Bond books. Le Carre's books are much more realistic describing how espionage is really done, which is mostly paperwork and interviewing people. Which admittedly is less exciting than gunfights and car chases.
- ghaff 4y agoTotally. I just never really got into them.
- simplicio 4y agoFWIW: I didn't like it either, but really enjoyed "Tinker.." and "Smiley's People".
- madrox 4y agoFWIW, I've been in your boat most of my life. The only reason I kept revisiting it was because my dad was a huge fan. I really started appreciating the pace and nuance as I got into my late thirties. Nothing in these stories spell anything out to you, so you have to do the work to get in their heads. It's why spies are so fascinating.
- thakoppno 4y agoI finished the book this afternoon and must concede I enjoyed it. I do wonder if it would have been possible to figure out the conclusion by getting sufficiently into the characters’ heads?
- porknubbins 4y agoMaybe try A Perfect Spy. Le Carre’s novels are certainly not thrillers, more like anti-thrillers. I think of the whole spy thing as a metaphor for the ways that humans lie, conceal and hurt others.