{"id":9636,"date":"2022-04-07T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-07T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9636"},"modified":"2022-04-07T08:02:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-07T12:02:46","slug":"spies-spies-spies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=9636","title":{"rendered":"Spies, Spies, Spies!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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You might with justification believe that John le Carr\u00e9’s death marked the end of sophisticated spy fiction. Three reasons to take heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First up, le Carr\u00e9 may be gone, but his work isn\u2019t quite finished. While I enjoyed what at the time was termed his \u201clast\u201d espionage novel\u2014Agent Running in the Field<\/a><\/em>\u2014the posthumously published, rather slender, novel Silverview<\/em> is also worth a read. Both are expert at focusing your attention in one direction, while all along, the protagonist is engaged in a much bigger, much more complicated game. It\u2019s that combination of spywork and grifter that I find so intriguing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over his career, le Carr\u00e9 had done such a convincing job of peopling the various sides in the Cold War and setting their minions against one another, that I for one wondered what he would write about after the breakup. I shouldn\u2019t have worried. Not only were there many more books, but the Russian menace was apparently just on pause. Too bad he\u2019s not still here to probe its current-day secrets. (You\u2019ll recall that in The Russia House<\/em>, set in the Gorbachev years, le Carr\u00e9\u2019s premise was that the Soviet military menace was not all it was cracked up to be. Fast-forward to 2022.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, let me introduce you to a 21st<\/sup> century spy novelist who I believe is a potential heir to le Carr\u00e9\u2019s mantle as chronicler of the cynical, conflicted, mistake-prone and sometimes baffling and baffled espionage agent: author James Wolff. A member of the UK government for fifteen years, he writes under a pseudonym. His two books\u20142018\u2019s Beside the Syrian Sea<\/a><\/em>, and 2021\u2019s How to Betray Your Country<\/em>\u2014are a different breed than the usual spy story, more complex, like the people he portrays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Wolff\u2019s work, you have a strong sense that the context and actions of the characters are grounded in reality, as the agents are, too, flaws and all. As Wolff said in an interview<\/a> with the Harrogate Festivals, \u201cI don\u2019t think that a book can be thrilling if the reader doesn\u2019t believe that the characters are real.\u201d No need to amp up the energy with over-the-top, implausible situations and confrontations. I\u2019ve lost patience with authors struggling to pack in yet another far-fetched idea or action scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And third, finally, Apple TV has finally started showing its original production<\/a> of Mick Herron\u2019s Slow Horses<\/a><\/em>, witty and quick-witted. As Apple describes it, the spy drama \u201cfollows a dysfunctional team of MI5 agents\u2014and their obnoxious boss, the notorious Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman)\u2014as they navigate the espionage world\u2019s smoke and mirrors to defend England from sinister forces.\u201d And Mick Jagger singing the theme song! What more can you ask? There are eight novels and three novellas in Herron\u2019s series, so, fingers crossed, there will be lots of good watching ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might with justification believe that John le Carr\u00e9’s death marked the end of sophisticated spy fiction. Three reasons to take heart. First up, le Carr\u00e9 may be gone, but his work isn\u2019t quite finished. While I enjoyed what at … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Think spy fiction is too preposterous and no more than thinly disguised Action Adventure? Three entertaining exceptions.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[61,193,40,56,126],"tags":[1343,557,1978],"class_list":["post-9636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-character","category-espionage","category-fiction","category-film","category-reading-2","tag-james-wolff","tag-john-le-carre","tag-slow-horses"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2vq","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9640,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9636\/revisions\/9640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}