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John Le Carre "The Russia House" (Penguin Modern Classics)
I had a period reading this novel where i found t difficult to concentrate on the plot, and consequently took longer than expected to complete the book.
The Russia House is one of those slow-burn, deliberately told stories that requires contemplation and uninterrupted reading time. The story begins at a book fair in Russia, where a woman named Katya delivers a manuscript for the attention of Bartholomew Scott "Barley" Blair, a publisher. The contents: Soviet defence secrets. Naturally, once the British Secret Service and the CIA find out about the manuscript, they have to get their hands on it. The story is told from the perspective of Horatio dePalfrey, a Service lawyer, as they do a postmortem on l'affaire "Bluebird" (their code name for the author of the manuscript). Of course, nobody will take the blame for anything, but "note was taken. Passively, since active verbs have an unpleasant way of betraying the actor."
This is the first le Carré I can recall reading that has first-person narration, and overall it works very well. Palfrey (most often referred to without the "de" for some reason) is self-effacing and unobtrusive, like the good Service lawyer he is. It's over 200 pages before we find out he's even married, for example. One does have to suspend a bit of disbelief when he reconstructs conversations to which he was not directly privy, but one could then counter with the idea that interviews with the people involved and transcripts from taped conversations would help him fill in the gaps. The conflict between the US and UK intelligence officers was also entertaining -- just like the Cold War, when the UK was almost more concerned about keeping secrets from the Americans than from the KGB.
I may try reading this again after getting some more historical background of the period, since most of my Cold War reading takes place before perestroika/glasnost.One which needs a second reading to fully appreciate.
I had a period reading this novel where i found t difficult to concentrate on the plot, and consequently took longer than expected to complete the book.
The Russia House is one of those slow-burn, deliberately told stories that requires contemplation and uninterrupted reading time. The story begins at a book fair in Russia, where a woman named Katya delivers a manuscript for the attention of Bartholomew Scott "Barley" Blair, a publisher. The contents: Soviet defence secrets. Naturally, once the British Secret Service and the CIA find out about the manuscript, they have to get their hands on it. The story is told from the perspective of Horatio dePalfrey, a Service lawyer, as they do a postmortem on l'affaire "Bluebird" (their code name for the author of the manuscript). Of course, nobody will take the blame for anything, but "note was taken. Passively, since active verbs have an unpleasant way of betraying the actor."
This is the first le Carré I can recall reading that has first-person narration, and overall it works very well. Palfrey (most often referred to without the "de" for some reason) is self-effacing and unobtrusive, like the good Service lawyer he is. It's over 200 pages before we find out he's even married, for example. One does have to suspend a bit of disbelief when he reconstructs conversations to which he was not directly privy, but one could then counter with the idea that interviews with the people involved and transcripts from taped conversations would help him fill in the gaps. The conflict between the US and UK intelligence officers was also entertaining -- just like the Cold War, when the UK was almost more concerned about keeping secrets from the Americans than from the KGB.
I may try reading this again after getting some more historical background of the period, since most of my Cold War reading takes place before perestroika/glasnost.One which needs a second reading to fully appreciate.
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