Agent Running in the Field - John le Carré

 

A book that I read in part in digital form, and in part as a hard copy at our local library while my younger daughter was busy reading (well, actually just leafing through, she's three!) dozens of Bluey, Spot and - much to my chagrin - Peppa Pig books. 

Le Carré is one of those authors who make me wonder whether one can be both a great writer and have near universal reach. Very few can, and I believe le Carré belongs in that list. 

Sure, the ending of the book feels rushed and underexplored, but we're talking about an author who, at the tender age of 88, was probably feeling the pressure of time more than others (and he might have a point, as he died soon after the publication of this book). 

Apparently Agent Running in the Field has been described by many as le Carré's Brexit novel, which is obviously reductive, but I did love his decision to air out his anger and frustration with that whole bonkers project: while the likes of Ali Smith and Ian McEwan are preaching to the choir when they criticize Brexit, I suspect le Carré's readership covers a much broader socio-political spectrum and so his move was a lot bolder and riskier (though again, at 88 he probably didn't have too much to lose). 

The Untouchable - John Banville

  

Not original. Not just in that the story of Anthony Blunt (or whatever kind of pseudonym he is hidden behind) is relatively well-known, but in that even Alan Bennett had written a fictional portrait of him well before Banville did. 

And yet, for once, I'm thinking: who the hell cares? The story remains fascinating and one of the few things that occasionally make me feel a bit of nostalgia for Cambridge, and Banville is one of the greatest living authors. 

So yeah, I thought this book was great, and thinking that The God of Small Things won the Booker that year makes me cringe a bit.

Our Man in Havana – Graham Greene

I teach a couple of courses on 20^th century history in what is meant to be an elite global university. I wish my students would read this book before our class on the Cuban Missile Crisis (just as I wish they would read The Quiet American before our class on the Vietnam War). However, I have the feeling that my students have the attention-span of a goldfish and cannot cope with many of the books and movies that I suggest they read and watch (one of them even told me that, as far as historical movies go, my Battle of Algiers and Deer Hunter pale in comparison to her Pearl Harbor).

Our Man in Havana is one of those books that made me laugh out loud, much to the surprise and worry of my wife. Yet, when you realize that the lives of Cifuentes, Wormold, Hasselbacher etc. might really be in danger, you just want to get to the last page of the book as quickly as you can to make sure they are all ok in the end. Sadly, not all of them are.

The book’s last-line is, to me, as wonderful as it gets.

As far as tales of misunderstandings and mistaken attempts on innocents’ lives go, this might even beat North by Northwest.