The Spy Who Came In from the Cold

Name: The Spy Who Came In from the Cold
Author: John le Carré

John le Carré

— 1963 —

“

The Cold War espionage novel that stripped the genre of glamour and replaced it with moral exhaustion.

The record

Time
An eveningA season
247 pages, about 5 hours: three-quarters the length of a typical book on the shelf.
Getting in
Walk right inSteep climb
Two readers report quitting in the opening chapters, when Leamas loses his job and takes work shelving books in a library.
What it gives
Plot and actionIdeas to live by
In 12 reviews from critics and book blogs, 7 credit the plot and 9 credit the ideas or a change in how they live.
One of a kind
Others do thisNothing else does
Mike Finn pairs it with Len Deighton’s The Ipcress File, on the shelf at 223 pages, as the other book that ended Bond glamour.

on the Fleming contrast
“a fine contrast to flamboyant Mr. Fleming”
Unsigned review · Kirkus Reviews, 1963
on the minor characters
“The scene setting was masterful, and even the minor characters left such an impact.”
a book blog
on the pace
“I read this book in one sitting”
a book blog
on the plot
“fiendishly clever both in its content and its exposition.”
a book blog

on the opening chapters
“the hero spends more time working in a library and picking fights with local grocers”
a book blog
on the romance
“wasn’t too sure if they bought the romance of the mission.”
a Substack review
on the prose style
“It is not as beautiful as Alistair MacLean’s gorgeous prose.”
a book blog
on the chronology
“the chronology of the novel makes absolutely no sense.”
a book blog