Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

so, very, many, commas–and asides

There are things I adore about this novel–George Smiley in particular, but also the jargon, the focus on intricacy over action, and the interwoven plot. I mean, it basically defined my all time favorite genre of intricate espionage novels

And there are things I hate about this book. People always complain about the convoluted plot and the abundance of characters, but I had no issue at all with that (if anything I found it a bit too straight foward for the genre). What I can't deal with is le Carre's convoluted sentences and the abundance of commas. I couldn't focus on the plot because I was too busy rearranging his sentences in my head

I think I finally understand the plot! It took many viewings of the BBC mini-series, a couple of the 2011 movie, and a slow read of the book; comparing it to the 2 shows to understand this!

Although I can't identify with any of the actors in the mini-series I think I had to see this plot visually and it had the plot I could understand better. Of the entire book I surprised myself by enjoying the last couple chapters and I realized it was because I finally had the 1st person point of view. I like being able to see how someone thinks; I hate intentionally missing plot points and unexplained actions.