A Perfect Spy

A masterpiece.

I am sad I don't know anyone whose read any John Le Carré, let alone a whole bunch of them, so I can share with them the majesty that is this book. I wouldn't recommend this as the first book of his to read but it's probably his best. An experienced writer using the trappings of the genre he is famous for to tell a deeply personal story. It's not really a spy novel, it's literary fiction using a spy novel as cover.

John Le Carré is the Charles Dickens of the 20th Century. Writing popular stories populated with larger-than-life yet totally real characters, telling stories that hold a mirror up to society showing its worst parts, but done in a spirit of understanding and love.

And genuinely funny. Every time he talks about Americans it's brilliant, whenever he has Grant Lederer in the scene it's the perfect mixture of hilarious and brutal, capturing this smug buffoon whose technically right but you don't like him for it, he's too crass and clueless. There's definitely a theme there if you want, or you can just have a laugh.

That's part of what makes the books so great, they are entertaining in their own right, completely absorbing characters and plots, but they are also chock full of themes, the most obvious being a beautifully tragic meditation on the decline of empire.

It seems impossible to balance showing how meaningless the aspirations of a society are, why it has to change, but also why it's still a little sad to see it gone - somehow John Le Carré manages to pull it off in style.