The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Very boring. The kind of thing only a severely emotionally constipated man would like.

Maybe in the 60s the idea of a callous and morally ambiguous spy agency was daring, but my reaction was something like “of course, why are you telling us something we would assume already.”

There was nothing interesting about the prose, and the characters, especially Liz, were wooden, as if Le Carre didn't believe women are people, or people are people.

I read somewhere that a good story should present the protagonist with two immoral choices, and the reader is interested in seeing how the protagonist will behave when pressed against the wall. There are no interesting choices here. Once Alec goes with the plan, he's a passive character and things happen to him. His humanity is supposed to be his downfall, but he's so inhumane to Liz that falls flat.