John le Carré Dies, Aged 89

 Hello Gentle Reader

 
On December 12^th, John le Carré, one of the titans of the contemporary English Literature, succumb to pneumonia, dying at the age of 89. His novels were often called ‘spy fiction,’ which changed the direction of the espionage novel. No more martini’s shaken not stirred; no more intriguing quartermaster devised gadgets, devices, or subtle arsenal; no more romances with daring beautiful women. Rather the world of espionage is one draped in the incompetent realm of political machinations, made more nefarious by the creeping distress and paranoia coursing in the undercurrents of one’s life. The world of spies in a le Carré novel was one of little carnal depravity or debauchery; in its place was the slow burning sensation of wait and see. The continued game of cat and mouse, with neither knowing who is the cat and who is the mouse. The power dynamic influx. To pursue and be pursued. Where other writers—such as the famous Ian Fleming, wrote of the debonair, the high stakes, and refined lifestyles of the ever patriotic spies— John le Carré took a sobering stock of the human condition and its hardboiled complexities, complete with all of its own entrapments, shortcomings, mistakes, illusions of grandeur, self-deceiving comforts and the mercurial notions of identity. The life John le Carré was as extraordinary in its own right, but follows the cool lukewarm trajectory of his novels: carefully observed and acutely aware, where excitement may exist or legend arise, he would temper it with objective reality, the tedium and the mundane. The life of John le Carré (born David Cornwell) is immediately noted for its cuckoo and unhappy upbringing. His father was a noted con man who had ties and criminal connections and was always in debt; while his mother abandoned him when was five years old. Despite the otherwise unconventional or otherwise setback childhood, John le Carré’s father was able to smuggle him into predatory schools, and through this education, would have the education to maneuver amongst the English upper class, and study languages at university. After his studies a career in intelligence and espionage would commence, first in the Intelligence Corps with the British Army, stationed in Austria working as a German language translator of dissidents fleeing the Iron Curtain. Upon returning to the United Kingdom le Carré continued his studies at Oxford and worked covertly with MI5 observing and reporting on far-left groups with the intent of uncovering covert Soviet agents. As father declared bankruptcy in the mid 1950’s, le Carré began teaching at a preparatory school, before once again returning to Oxford and completing his degree in modern languages, and going on teach at Eaton College, and then returned to MI5. Upon returning to MI5, le Carré ran operatives, conducted interrogations, communications interception and break and enter operations. During this time John le Carré wrote his earliest works which were modestly recognized. It wasn’t until transferring to MI6 and working as a political consul and the publication of: “The Spy Who Came in from The Cold,” did John le Carré came to receive critical appraisal and enter the imagination of the public. By 1964 his career in espionage and intelligence had concluded with the leaks to the Soviet Union by the double agent: Kim Philby. From then on out, le Carré wrote works that eroded the notation that espionage was some glamorous and rewarding work, instead depicting it as the morally ambiguous, unheroic functions of political gains and interests. His novels were more psychological in their dramatic tense, then they are physical.
 
John le Carré was the sobering antidote, to Ian Fleming his literary creation, James Bond. le Carré’s characters, agents and spies were bureaucratic and unremarkable, deprived of any endowment of superhuman charm or charisma or physical prowess. In lieu they were more manipulative, depictive and ordinary. Capable of blending in with landscape, listening rather than talking and observing the comings and goings of the political machinations who they are subservient to, despite their own hesitations or concerns. Without a doubt, John le Carré moved espionage novels away from the mere ‘genre,’ categorization and into the more literary. Treating the work more literary with acute observations, psychological depictions and moral dilemmas; providing a lengthy retrospective regarding the human condition at the mercy of the self-interest competing and incompetent world powers, who have little regard or attachment to the everyday life of the otherwise common man.
 
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
 
M. Mary