Agent Running in the Field
Ratings9
Average rating3.7
A new novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author John le Carré Set in London in 2018, Agent Running in the Field follows a twenty-six year old solitary figure who, in a desperate attempt to resist the political turbulence swirling around him, makes connections that will take him down a dangerous path. In his plot and characterization le Carré is as thrilling as ever and in the way he writes about our times he proves himself, once again, to be the greatest chronicler of our age.
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There are few authors who can capture the grey morality of espionage better than Le Carre. Agent Running in the Field brings his spy stories right into the era of Trump and Brexit, fully incorporating all the geopolitical challenges and difficulties that the modern times have.
The story is told by Nat, an older agent runner for MI6. He has done his job on various international assignments, but is past his peak and brought home to work on some lower priority internal agents.
In many ways this novel is a throw back to some of the cold war Le Carre novels. The big bad is again Russia, the inter-agency rivalries are at the forefront of the story again. When you come to consider the current political climate it does start to make sense. All the stories of Russian meddling in western elections and referendums, the cosying up to Putin that Trump has been doing and the geopolitical shock of Brexit are all changing the power dynamics within the world again.
This is a good Le Carre novel, the setting is of the time and the twists and turns are interesting and as morally grey as any good Le Carre is
I was really enjoying this book and then it ended before it resolved. What? A whole lot of loose threads at the end of this one that I wasn't prepared for because the book was overall so meticulous.
I enjoyed this novel but it is not in the same class as many of my favorites. I'm not sure exactly why. Perhaps I found Nat, the protagonist, a little smug compared to Smiley and some of his other spymasters. Perhaps also the novel touches only on the cynicism of the British versus Putin and the American Putin wannabe. Is it possible that he couldn't really find, or delve into, the complexities of the current political chaos in the US? Was he too close in time to the events? Or too disappointed? At any rate, it was easy to sympathize with the earnest and naive Ed, and the much more sophisticated and deeper Florence. It's unfortunate that he did not center the book more around Florence.
Someone earlier mentioned that this might be a good introduction to Le Carre's more intricate novels. Had I started with this one, I'm pretty sure I would not have continued: nothing special here, move on. If you have limited time and wish to choose, you could safely skip this one. I do very much wonder if he had been ten years younger, how he would have treated these same events/characters.
