rameau's ramblings

Once again Smiley is called back to deal with old spies and old secrets others have long since forgotten, and this time he’s in a hurry. Within a few weeks George Smiley will face his old nemesis, Karla, and play his last hand in their twenty year card game. That’s where the title of the Finnish translation comes from: Värisuora = straight flush.I felt like le Carré tried to recreate Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy in Smiley’s People. All the things I so very much disliked about The Honourable Schoolboy were absent and I could once again lose myself in the marvellous mind and machinations of the old, round, and bespectacled spy. Unfortunately, a recreation can never truly surpass its original and for longest periods I was simply bored. If I were merely comparing this to Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, well, let’s just say that the rating would sink like a cow’s tail, but I’m not. The last hundred pages of this book more than earned their stars. The last two pages and the resolution for Smiley’s personal relationship might have even earned an extra one all by themselves.I love the way le Carré writes. It’s as simple as that.