Tuesday, 8 October 2024 07:02 pm
Book Review: Agent Running in the Field
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deckardcanineMy previous experience of John le Carré consisted of movies. I dug The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, but The Constant Gardener was just OK to me, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was hard to follow. When I found one of his books at an exchange, I decided I'd finally go straight to the source. Little did I realize this was the last one published before he died.
The first-person, inconsistently present-tense narrator is Nat, a middle-aged MI6 agent who thinks they have no more use for him, until they make him head of a previously abandoned London substation. Meanwhile, as the best player at his badminton club, he now has a constant friendly rival in younger Ed, who chats with him over drinks afterward. Ed is politically outspoken, but Nat does not suspect his Russian affiliation right away. When other agents find out first, Nat himself is under suspicion.
This being set in 2018, the back cover indicates that Ed hates Brexit. It does not mention that he also likes to rant about MAGA, which he seems to deem indivisible from Brexit. Nat generally agrees with his positions but finds his ardor tiresome. (If you think you don't know anyone like that, you are like that.) Nat also has a young adult daughter further left than himself. Don't be too concerned if you disagree with every character; le Carré doesn't set out to "prove" any of them right. The politics are almost window dressing to convey modern relevance in a small-scale story.
What's misleading about the cover is that it suggests suspense. Nobody literally runs, except presumably in the course of a badminton game. There is no action to speak of, and the worst threat, mostly to Ed, is of imprisonment rather than violence. Even depictions of espionage are at a minimum.
Not only are the stakes low, but there is barely a semblance of conflict for the first half of the book. If not for the narration taking an occasional tone of legally compelled justification, I could have mistaken it for a slice of life. It may be credible, but it's the most boring book I've read in ages. At another time in my life, I would have given up long before reaching the end.
I marvel that the harshest thing I've seen another reviewer say about ARitF is that it gives short shrift to supporting character development and wrap-up. What are other people getting out of this? Surely not just affirmation of liberal attitudes; that's way too easy to find elsewhere. I doubt any studio will adapt the story to the screen.
Maybe le Carré had lost his taste or capacity for thrills and complexity in his late 80s. If I ever take another chance on him, it'll be a much earlier work.
Despite what you might expect, I am reading a third book in a row that is neither fantasy nor sci-fi: Electra Barracuda: A Novel by Tim Dorsey. I'll explain later.
The first-person, inconsistently present-tense narrator is Nat, a middle-aged MI6 agent who thinks they have no more use for him, until they make him head of a previously abandoned London substation. Meanwhile, as the best player at his badminton club, he now has a constant friendly rival in younger Ed, who chats with him over drinks afterward. Ed is politically outspoken, but Nat does not suspect his Russian affiliation right away. When other agents find out first, Nat himself is under suspicion.
This being set in 2018, the back cover indicates that Ed hates Brexit. It does not mention that he also likes to rant about MAGA, which he seems to deem indivisible from Brexit. Nat generally agrees with his positions but finds his ardor tiresome. (If you think you don't know anyone like that, you are like that.) Nat also has a young adult daughter further left than himself. Don't be too concerned if you disagree with every character; le Carré doesn't set out to "prove" any of them right. The politics are almost window dressing to convey modern relevance in a small-scale story.
What's misleading about the cover is that it suggests suspense. Nobody literally runs, except presumably in the course of a badminton game. There is no action to speak of, and the worst threat, mostly to Ed, is of imprisonment rather than violence. Even depictions of espionage are at a minimum.
Not only are the stakes low, but there is barely a semblance of conflict for the first half of the book. If not for the narration taking an occasional tone of legally compelled justification, I could have mistaken it for a slice of life. It may be credible, but it's the most boring book I've read in ages. At another time in my life, I would have given up long before reaching the end.
I marvel that the harshest thing I've seen another reviewer say about ARitF is that it gives short shrift to supporting character development and wrap-up. What are other people getting out of this? Surely not just affirmation of liberal attitudes; that's way too easy to find elsewhere. I doubt any studio will adapt the story to the screen.
Maybe le Carré had lost his taste or capacity for thrills and complexity in his late 80s. If I ever take another chance on him, it'll be a much earlier work.
Despite what you might expect, I am reading a third book in a row that is neither fantasy nor sci-fi: Electra Barracuda: A Novel by Tim Dorsey. I'll explain later.