The library “books you should read” table got me again. No complaints about this one, though.
John Le Carre is a known entity, but not to me. Smiley’s People is my first Le Carré read, though I did catch a recent movie.
Despite missing the first two books of the trilogy, I fell in with Smiley’s return to old territory and previous fights. For such an inward-looking book, Smiley keeps his distance. While we’re privy to his thoughts, Smiley is always “he” not “I’ — we just happened to be privileged to secret information. Not all, and not enough, but closer to the veil than others. The action picks up throughout the story, and Smiley does move about notably for an old spy (supposedly retired by this time). Still, it’s Smiley’s memories which slow him down the most.
I didn’t lean in at first, but I was eager to finish the book over the Thanksgiving break, so the tale clearly grew on me. I’ll have to decide whether to delve in at the beginning.