Another classic espionage novel written in beautiful English. The narrator turns out to be Ned, the sympathetic, melancholy, Dutch-English head of the Russia House in the novel of the same name. And guess who appears next: dear old George Smiley, who gets an encore. I thought we had seen the last of him in Smiley's People, but here he is again. The Secret Pilgrim is really a book of short stories based on Ned's reminiscences of his life as a spy, while he listens to Smiley giving a lecture to Sarratt, or, in Circus lingo, 'Nursery' students. The stories are good and memorable, and feature some of the well-known characters of earlier novels, such as Toby Esterhase and Harry Palfrey, the narrator of the Russia House. We even catch a few glimpses of Peter Guillam. For le Carre afficionados it's a treat to have some of the same characters turn up in different novels. It provides continuity and makes the world of the Circus, now called the Service, seem very real, and populated by real people. There are even such nuggets as the information that Paul Skordeno of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy turned bankrobber and is serving a long jail sentence in South America.At one point it appears Smiley has been lecturing on his interrogation of Karla after his defection to the West at the end of Smiley's People, but unfortunately Ned does not tell us what was said at that legendary meeting between the two archetypal Cold Warriors.On a personal level, the novel is about Ned's problems with relationships with women, a recurring theme with le Carré's characters. The overall theme is the fading away of the old Cold War spies after Glasnost and the fall of the Berlin Wall. There's a lot of reflection in the stories on the morals of spying, and the difference between ideals and ground level reality, and whether the wrong people on each side won the Cold War and the right ones lost it, and generally it's the end of an era.Smiley seems to dissapear once and for all after finishing his lecture. The new head of the Service, Burr, a protege of Smiley and successor to the slippery Clive of the Russia House novel, is a young genius who knows the Cold War only from stories. Ned goes into retirement too. His last job/story is to try to stop a wealthy and immoral British upper-class capitalist from selling arms to militant parties in volatile regions in the Third World. Clearly he is one of the new enemies replacing Communism. Ned appeals unsuccesfully to his conscience. It provides the theme for le Carre's next novel: the Night Manager.
Review from Broken Penguins blog: http://brokenpenguins.wordpress.com/2...Once upon a time, I read Tailor, Tinker, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre and hated it.It’s his most famous novel but I just didn’t dig it. Too barren, too cold, too confusing. So I let his other novel The Secret Pilgrim gather dust on my shelf.I’m glad I returned to le Carre because I loved The Secret Pilgrim. The Cold War has ended and a spy named Ned narrates what becomes of the British spy service. The Secret Pilgrim is actually a series of short stories about the agents that have fallen over the years — either turned traitor, had their cover blown or just plain gone missing.Confession: I finally read this because I became hopelessly addicted to watching Homeland. This article sums up what it’s like to be a fan of this show. It’s a tad obsessive but it makes you want to read and watch anything and everything about spies. But I assure you, The Secret Pilgrim is not just about spies.PILG_ussrLoyalty is a fickle sport and you get to witness the mental anguish behind betrayal. We’re reminded that when it comes to war (and love, for that matter), there is no real clear divide between the good guys and the bad ones. And when you’re constantly caught between the two, it’s entirely possible to find yourself fighting on the losing side.Le Carre also makes a political statement at the end of the book. I don’t want to give too much away but it’s a statement that’s very relevant today despite being written in 1990. Different war, same problems.
What do You think about The Secret Pilgrim (1991)?
The end may be used to justify the means - if it wasn't supposed to, I dare say you wouldn't be here. But there's a price to pay, and the price does tend to be oneself. Easy to sell one's soul at your age."Life was to be a search, or nothing! But it was the fear that it was nothing that drove me forward. Every encounter was an encounter with myself." "I felt a rampant incomprehension of my uselessness; a sense that, for all my striving, I had failed to come to grips with life; that in struggling to give freedom to others, I had found none for myself." "I still looked to the world to provide me with the chance to make my contribution—and blamed it for not knowing how to use me.""Everything that happened to me on the way was a preparation for our meeting." "There was no such thing to him as a casual question, let alone a casual answer.""All that we are is a result of what we have thought." "History keeps her secrets longer than most of us."
—Chase
Насправді відомо два цикли шпигунських романів Ле Карре, пов'язаних зі Смайлі. Просто один, де Смайлі діє на перших ролях, входить у другий, де він просто є частиною світу. Старим знайомим (а молодим Смайлі в романах ніколи не був).Якимось дивним чином пропустивши передостанній роман більшого циклу, я щойно дочитав останній і відчуваю ностальгію прощання з улюбленим персонажем, хоча і знаю, що зустрінуся з ним знов.Цей роман відрізняється від інших у серії тим, що у нього немає єдиного сюжету. А є окремі епізоди, де проблеми приватного життя переплітаються з перипетіями таємної служби, спогади, об'єднані тільки тим, хто згадує.Я не знаюся на справжніх мемуарах, тому не можу сказати, як ці, художні, пов'язані з документальними. Це не важливо.Для мене виявилось важливим інше: кожна з цих історій втягувала мене у себе цілком, захоплювала так, що її сусіди тьмяніли і втрачали своє значення.Попри це залишається видно, що сама ця робота роздроблена по суті, що кінцевої мети може не виявитися, що життя може дійти до тої точки, коли вже тягне сказати «минуло» — і нічого такого в цьому не виявиться.Додам, що Смайлі, як і, скажімо, в романі «Шпигун, що повернувся з холоду», ми тут майже не бачимо. Але він говорить своє останнє слово, і йде, не озираючись. Більше ми про нього не почуємо.
—Mykola
Of all the Le Carre novels I've read so far, this one is by far the most enjoyable. A series of interwoven vignettes and short stories told by the narrator, the former head of British Intelligence's "Circus" station in Moscow, during the visit of the former head of the Circus, George Smiley. Smiley holds forth court at a prestigious university where the narrator has invited him to give a post-Cold War valedictorium to future spies. The story ostensibly takes place in the early 1990's, years after the tumultuous events leading up to and after the exposure of the Circus' mole. As Smiley reflects on a life as a spy master, the narrator reminisces with the reader on episodes in his own life - stories that run the gamut from his early years as a watcher in 1960's London, his unraveling the mystery of his good friend who was a spy in Berlin, to his later years chasing after a rumored sighting of a British spy presumed lost to Pol Pot's Cambodian nightmare. It is an amazingly delicate and intricate literary quilt that Le Carre has managed to sew together such disparate fabrics of story, and for the uninitiated to Le Carre's larger oeuvre a great first step towards exploring the other novels involving Smiley and his people.
—Buck Jones
