More Spies But (Wisely) Why's
In my youth, my father was perhaps a spy... When I was in 1st grade he was studying Polish at the US Army Language school in Monterey, and then we spent a good part of the 60's in Germany. Apparently, he finished near the top of his class in Polish, but then later he always joked about his knowledge of Polish, but then from time to time he mentioned files marked "Top Top Secret" - who knows, perhaps he was a spy.... He had some story about somebody dying over there, but then he spent the last part of his military career as a Combat Engineer in Viet Nam... not something that was really spy-ie.
One of his favoitie movies was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold with then world's greatest actor Richard Burton He'd read the book, and he'd read the book The Looking Glass War. I don't remember him thinking the movie of the latter was the greatest. Nevertheless I remember him praising the book and actually remember recommending this book to a high school friend who asked me for a recommendation... I'm supposed the read a "novel" he said, and for some reason I remember telling him The Looking Glass War was a "novel" and something my father said was really good....
There have been 35 or 40 years that have elapsed between then and now, and the author of those 2 novels somehow evaded me, even though I have read many another "novel". A few months ago I was in Half Price Books and got Horseman, Pass By and The Honourable Schoolboy.,.. read in that order. I still have half a hundred pages to go in The Honourable Schoolboy, but am thinking now I gotta go back and read everything Le Carre has written... Go back to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold forward...
The Honourable Schoolboy (Jerry Westerby) is James Bond in the flesh, and yet you think he might be a man in the flesh as well. You'll travel the world from Tuscany to London to Hong Kong to Vientiane to Northern Thailand.... Battanbang... Phnom Pehn... More excitement than I'll ever find in a bottle of Mirror Pond.
JLC has one line near the beginning of this where he recommends to some journalist that he not write in simple sentences. Perhaps the complexity of his sentences somehow put me off when I'd looked at his other works. At least here they really weave an intricate tapestry.... I felt them very effective in evoking an immersion into another world... I was struck by resemblances to Conrad, both in language and in subject... His descriptions of an urban Phnom Penh more effective than the rural Cambodian village in Apocalypse Now...
As I said, still have 50 pages to go.... Hey, perhaps he'll punt. Nevertheless, think he'll throw on 4th down....
One of his favoitie movies was The Spy Who Came in from the Cold with then world's greatest actor Richard Burton He'd read the book, and he'd read the book The Looking Glass War. I don't remember him thinking the movie of the latter was the greatest. Nevertheless I remember him praising the book and actually remember recommending this book to a high school friend who asked me for a recommendation... I'm supposed the read a "novel" he said, and for some reason I remember telling him The Looking Glass War was a "novel" and something my father said was really good....
There have been 35 or 40 years that have elapsed between then and now, and the author of those 2 novels somehow evaded me, even though I have read many another "novel". A few months ago I was in Half Price Books and got Horseman, Pass By and The Honourable Schoolboy.,.. read in that order. I still have half a hundred pages to go in The Honourable Schoolboy, but am thinking now I gotta go back and read everything Le Carre has written... Go back to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold forward...
The Honourable Schoolboy (Jerry Westerby) is James Bond in the flesh, and yet you think he might be a man in the flesh as well. You'll travel the world from Tuscany to London to Hong Kong to Vientiane to Northern Thailand.... Battanbang... Phnom Pehn... More excitement than I'll ever find in a bottle of Mirror Pond.
JLC has one line near the beginning of this where he recommends to some journalist that he not write in simple sentences. Perhaps the complexity of his sentences somehow put me off when I'd looked at his other works. At least here they really weave an intricate tapestry.... I felt them very effective in evoking an immersion into another world... I was struck by resemblances to Conrad, both in language and in subject... His descriptions of an urban Phnom Penh more effective than the rural Cambodian village in Apocalypse Now...
As I said, still have 50 pages to go.... Hey, perhaps he'll punt. Nevertheless, think he'll throw on 4th down....
posted by quantom qurkington at 7:30 PM
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