Archive for February 19, 2015
THE LOOKING GLASS WAR by JOHN LeCARRE’
My reading volume has increased since becoming a fulltime writer, as it should. Also, because I’m a fulltime writer with minimal sales and retired, I haunt the Goodwill store and local library where books can be obtained, hardback for one dollar and paperbacks for fifty cents. I love bringing home an armful of books for next to nothing. My piles of books grow and I feel I’m surrounded by, soon to be, old friends.
During my book-buying adventures I stumbled upon books by John LeCarre’. I put them aside for I thought they would be too dated, spies and the cold war. But when I finally went to read the novels, I was in for a treat I did not expect.
The Looking Glass War, published in 1965, is a spy novel. Because of its publication date, I thought it might not offer much, instead, it was a book I could not put down.
We are all familiar with the James Bond character and the adventures described in Mission Impossible movies where the characters succeed in everything they attempt and nothing goes wrong.
Give me a break!
In LeClarre’s spy novel, the spies make mistakes, their frailties play into their work – they are human. Not only does everything not go right, little does. As they try to do their job they worry about cost and budgets.
If you want an entertaining read, try to find some of this author’s books.
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