| John le Carré gone 22:39 - Dec 13 with 1239 views | rrrspricey |
RIP to a great author particularly around the cold War |  | | |  |
| John le Carré gone on 23:30 - Dec 13 with 1198 views | CiderwithRsie |
Sad news. Was going to nominate "Tinker, Tailor" in the "Books you've read more than once" thread. I hope the Beeb repeats the TV series, it was one of their great moments (though the book is more complex still) |  | | |
| John le Carré gone on 00:55 - Dec 14 with 1155 views | rsonist |
| John le Carré gone on 23:30 - Dec 13 by CiderwithRsie |
Sad news. Was going to nominate "Tinker, Tailor" in the "Books you've read more than once" thread. I hope the Beeb repeats the TV series, it was one of their great moments (though the book is more complex still) |
Yes, the TV series is superb. I've bewildered many people who haven't seen it with my utter contempt for the 2011 film.
I don't normally do audiobooks but the Tinker Tailor narrated by Michael Jayston (Peter Guillam in the series) is wonderful too. |  | | |
| John le Carré gone on 07:19 - Dec 14 with 1104 views | distortR |
i first read a le Carre book out of necessity - it was the only book in a house i was staying in! I always thought he would be in the Alaistar McClean mold - not my cup of tea.
How wrong I was.
Very much saddened this morning to learn that I will never read a new book of his again.
R.I.P | | | |
| John le Carré gone on 08:23 - Dec 14 with 1070 views | hantssi |
Was also about to add this to the “good books” thread.
Read a couple, hard going but worth it.
RIP | | | |
| John le Carré gone on 09:19 - Dec 14 with 1048 views | bosh67 |
Yes, sad news. Decent age. One of our very best authors. RIP. |  |
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| John le Carré gone on 11:30 - Dec 14 with 1011 views | CiderwithRsie |
| John le Carré gone on 00:55 - Dec 14 by rsonist |
Yes, the TV series is superb. I've bewildered many people who haven't seen it with my utter contempt for the 2011 film.
I don't normally do audiobooks but the Tinker Tailor narrated by Michael Jayston (Peter Guillam in the series) is wonderful too. |
There are things I liked about the film - Oldman brings a ruthlessness to Smiley that I think is in the books but less apparent in Guinness, and a wonderful scene at the MI6 office Christmas party with them all singing the Soviet national anthem semi-ironically which isn't in the book but seemed to me to capture the weirdness of being on the inside of the Cold War.
But I agree it's not a patch on the TV series, Guinness has the self-doubt and humanity of Smiley and the ensemble cast is the best I've ever seen. I specially didn't like the vast hi-tech MI6 offices in the film, the grotty corridors in dismal grey and green of the TV series (I believe they just used bits of the BBC!) were both more realistic and truer to the sense of Britain as a declining power with outdated structures which I think is one of the key themes of the book.
It's the ability to conjure up all those themes and character issues without really saying so explicitly and while pushing on with a great plot that I love about Le Carre. Unfortunately I think his non-Cold War books are bit too obvious even though I sympathise with his views!
I don't do audiobooks either but may have to check that one out - Jayston's Guillam was a real high point of the TV for me. | | | |
| John le Carré gone on 12:45 - Dec 14 with 974 views | terryb |
RIP John. Such sad news & I will now have to stop looking to see if he has released a new novel.
I'm another one who has read ALL of his books more than once. Indeed I am half way through rereading all of his catalogue. I would agree that some books take a lot longer to complete than others, but all are well worth the read.
The other author that I have his full fiction list & have reread is Hans Helmut Kirst. Most widely known for The Night of The Generals & 20th of July. | | | |
| John le Carré gone on 14:59 - Dec 14 with 932 views | rsonist |
| John le Carré gone on 11:30 - Dec 14 by CiderwithRsie |
There are things I liked about the film - Oldman brings a ruthlessness to Smiley that I think is in the books but less apparent in Guinness, and a wonderful scene at the MI6 office Christmas party with them all singing the Soviet national anthem semi-ironically which isn't in the book but seemed to me to capture the weirdness of being on the inside of the Cold War.
But I agree it's not a patch on the TV series, Guinness has the self-doubt and humanity of Smiley and the ensemble cast is the best I've ever seen. I specially didn't like the vast hi-tech MI6 offices in the film, the grotty corridors in dismal grey and green of the TV series (I believe they just used bits of the BBC!) were both more realistic and truer to the sense of Britain as a declining power with outdated structures which I think is one of the key themes of the book.
It's the ability to conjure up all those themes and character issues without really saying so explicitly and while pushing on with a great plot that I love about Le Carre. Unfortunately I think his non-Cold War books are bit too obvious even though I sympathise with his views!
I don't do audiobooks either but may have to check that one out - Jayston's Guillam was a real high point of the TV for me. |
Agreed but I really do think the ruthlessness is there with Guinness - that fantastic wordless finale to the first episode where after he's been a passenger blown around and bothered throughout he wipes his glasses to listen to Ricki Tarr and fixes a look at him that is almost imperceptibly different but unmistakeably heavyweight - the entire atmosphere changes. Also the scene where he visits Connie, which is so hard and empathetic at the same time.
Particularly agree with the point about the setting - and meaning of the setting - that the film loses. It becomes this Merchant Ivory minimalist mood piece hygge thing that I suspect was motivated by the success of Mad Men at the time. That superficiality runs through every aspect of it - a suspenseless Scooby Doo procedural, mechanical instead of methodical, and none of the deep, subtle, complicit character studies. As the story would have it it's Witchcraft Material, basically. | | | |
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| John le Carré gone on 21:26 - Dec 15 with 806 views | markrtid |
Or has he realy gone?? |  | | |
| John le Carré gone on 23:57 - Dec 15 with 764 views | lightwaterhoop |
Any of you who enjoyed reading Le Carre might also like Len Deighton especially the Game Set and Match trilogy. A bit easier to follow but still engrossing. | | | |
| John le Carré gone on 00:58 - Dec 16 with 749 views | CiderwithRsie |
| John le Carré gone on 23:57 - Dec 15 by lightwaterhoop |
Any of you who enjoyed reading Le Carre might also like Len Deighton especially the Game Set and Match trilogy. A bit easier to follow but still engrossing. |
Game, Set and Match is excellent. Hook, Line and Sinker is more a commentary on the first trilogy but interesting if you got into G,S & M. (Winter, featuring Bernard Samson's dad, is also good.) In some ways they are excellent companions to Le Carre's earlier German-set books e.g. SpyWho Came In From The Cold and Small Town In Germany - the same reminder that during the Cold War both sides of Germany were full of people who had been alive, often adult, during the War and they all had A Past.
I really liked Ian Holm in the ITV adaption but Deighton had some problem or other with the production and it's never been repeated or released on video. | | | |
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