le Carré’s ‘The Karla Trilogy’

I’ve been reading up on the Cold War and the Iron Curtain and naturally ended up shortlisting John le Carre’s Karla Trilogy  – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Honorable Schoolboy and Smiley’s People – for a reread.

While James Bond was dashing, sophisticated, and sensual, le Carre’s George Smiley is a senior retired bureaucrat, cuckolded by his wife and grappling with a bumbling bureaucracy of a fading Britain.

le Carre’s books are not easy reading. With flashbacks and random episodes interspersed, one has to read him with diligence. I followed up the books with the legendary BBC series of TTSS and Smiley’s People – both immortalized by Alec Guinness’ fine portrayal of George Smiley. (The series is available on YouTube.) And yes, ever since I finished ‘The Honorable Schoolboy’, I have this yearning to visit Hong Kong. This one is mandatory reading before visiting the place as its so damn evocative.

While reading up about the Cold War, its often hard to imagine that the knife-edge on which the world was poised, was very much the state of the world during my early childhood. (I was six when the Berlin Wall fell). In the YT comments under the series, this particular one caught my eye:

Anne Garrels was a correspondent for ABC stationed in Moscow when the series was released on video. Because of her broadcasting work, she had a VCR when most people there did not. She got a copy of TTTS and: “I watched it in Moscow with the CIA station chief. I knew who he was. He knew I knew, but we never actually said that – and a bunch of Russians. And, of course, we were sitting there watching it. And, of course, we knew the KGB was listening in to the apartment. And they knew we knew, they knew we knew, and it was a hilarious moment.”.

TTSS was also adapted in 2011, starring Gary Oldman. After becoming a fan of his work in Slow Horses, this is something that I intend to watch asap.

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