The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John Le Carre

Originally written and published due to the popularity that the early James Bond novels and movies generated in the early 1950s, this novel, like a few other contemporary stories, was meant as an intentional jab at the pulpy fiction of the Bond stories. The main character, Alec Leamas, is a deeply burned-out civil servant/spy who drinks too much, smokes too much and doesn't care who wins anymore. He is used by his superiors for one last desperate gambit against the Soviet Union that deftly shows how people are used up by the system and casually tossed aside when they are wrung dry. The novel is almost completely plot driven with Leamas' character the only properly fleshed-out one and it is firmly set in the early days of the Cold War. For all that, it has aged very well and is as applicable now as it was then. The novel is an absolute corker (as they used to say) and reads very quickly (I finished it in one sitting). So pour yourself a nice sherry, find yourself an overstuffed chair and let yourself glide back into the shadowy days of the early Cold War when people are never quite what they seem...or maybe they are...

Leatherby Libraries Call Number: PR6062.E33 S6 1963
2nd Floor Humanities Library
Review submitted by: Randolph Boyd, Gift Acquisitions, Leatherby Libraries
Rating: Highly Recommended