The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (John le Carre)

Le Carre, who had worked in intelligence, wrote the first truly modern spy novel in this dark and cynical work. Set at the height of the Cold War, and peopled by morally challenged and ambiguous people, it is a chilling tale of desperation and evil. While I put his Karla novels ahead of this, it is only by a fraction.

To label this book just as a spy book it is a tremendous injustice and oversimplification. "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" is manly about our fatalism. I've never read anything to even remotely resemble the style. It takes a few pages to get used, but once you get it, you are immersed. The story has some flaws, but it is extremely intriguing. The characters will stay with me forever. There is no much background about them. We know them through their reactions, ethics and spare thoughts and that's more than enough. Even without the cold war, "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" still makes sense.

I'm not sure why I never read this cold war classic, but until recently I hadn't. It's a very good novel, with a refreshing economy to it. At just over 200 pages it tells the story of a British spy who agrees to one final mission behind the Iron Curtain before he retires and `comes in from the cold'. As one might expect of the genre, not everything is as it seems. This is not a novel filled with explosions, high speed chases and witty exchanges. This is espionage of the cerebral variety, where all the players are making moves and anticipating counter-moves at every turn. The spy game is completely convincing and the characters are fully realized, flawed human beings. Le Carre gives us a hero who is pragmatic, tired, and bitter. A far cry from the superficial slickness of James Bond and Hollywood blockbusters. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold is a smart novel with an uncompromisingly brutal ending that will resonate with the reader. This is undeniably a benchmark in the spy... Read more

This spy novel has it all: fleshed-out characters, excellent dialogue, wonderful pacing and a plot that's replete with uncertainty. The writer held me on the edge of my seat right to his thrilling finish, after which the characters and intrigues continued to linger in my mind. Through the eyes of Le Carre, a genuine spook, I became struck by the high drama of the Cold War period, including the stakes, the rivalries, and most interesting of all, the ambiguities. I say that despite remembering the late Cold War era because the author portrays the battle of the Soviet Bloc versus the West with a vividness and sensitivity one could never glean from TV broadcasts, newspapers and magazines. Le Carre's a brutal and fearless artist; weaned on a diet of Hollywood cliches where "the German" is usually cast as stupid, I was refreshed--even shocked--to visit a world where Mundt could be the smartest man in the room and where America's arch enemy just might win. Fantastic read. I thought L... Read more

This is my first review so you know its gonna be good or bad. I am happy to say that it is one of the best novels I have read all year. John Le Carre created a spy novel that had me captivated by the inner dialogue of the main character alone. A must read.

John Le Carre can put into a 223 page book what some authors today need 600 pages to tell. He is not just a master with the dialogue, but with the mood, setting and gives you a complete rundown of the politics in that small number of pages. There is no need for me to give you a rundown of the storyline; many have done that before me. What I'm here to say is that even after 45 years, this book is still relevant and although some might say it is dated, it gives us an accurate appraisal of the 1960's in Europe - something our current history books can't do. Loving a good spy novel, I began to read Le Carre, starting with "Our Game" because I bought it at a library book sale. It was just okay at best - very rambling and with no real focus, it seemed. What was I missing? So I read "Single and Single" because I bought it at a church book sale. It was really bad. This just seemed like drivel from an author that had no idea where the story was going. But I knew that Le Carre was ... Read more