Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* When John le Carré was writing Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974), he made a mistake that would change his life. Working from an outdated guidebook, he described a pursuit by ferry across the straits between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island, not knowing that a tunnel had been built under the sea connecting the two points. Appalled, he swore that he would never again set a scene in a place I hadn't visited. As a result of that vow, le Carré's readers now have the opportunity to enjoy what is both a meditative look at the writing life and an exciting, anecdote-rich travel memoir. We follow, for example, in the writer's footsteps as he recalls staying at Beirut's legendary Commodore Hotel in 1981, researching The Little Drummer Girl (1983), and realizing that for the timid, Beirut did fear round the clock. It was also in Lebanon that le Carré met with Yasser Arafat and encountered a Palestinian boy who held a Kalashnikov to the author's head and asked for help in getting to Havana to study international relations. As le Carré recounts his travels from one global hot spot to another, the reader makes the connections between books and life, whether it's A Tailor of Panama or The Constant Gardener or The Honourable Schoolboy or numerous others. There is a long, moving chapter about le Carré's father, but overall, the author avoids his strictly personal life. This is a book about writing and traveling and the ways in which the two feed off one another, especially for someone who, like le Carré, loves writing on the hoof. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: le Carré's devoted audience, built and sustained over decades, will be lining up as one for this glimpse at how those beloved books came to be.--Ott, Bill Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Always insightful, frequently charming, and sometimes sobering, the memorable tales told by master storyteller le Carré (A Delicate Truth) about his life will surely delight both longtime fans and newcomers. Le Carré's stories take readers around the world, covering his posting as a young intelligence officer in post-WWII Germany, his time in Gorbachev's Russia, and research trips for his novels. His witty reminiscences of situations both dangerous and absurd, and his well-delineated portraits of exceptional and quirky figures, bring to life the extraordinary adventures that fed his novels. Those novels deal with the slippery world of espionage, political intrigue, and secret agents-most famously through the exploits of English spymaster George Smiley. (Alec Guinness, who portrayed Smiley memorably on television, figures prominently in le Carré's memoir as well.) In perhaps the most serious chapter, le Carré talks candidly about his con artist father, Ronnie, and the failings of both father and son. But his self-deprecating humor and wit are never far away, and he proves a most elegant and genial host on this tour of his life and work. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
The octogenarian spy novelist who was once a spy himself was catapulted to celebrity with his third novel, 1963's The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Half a century of best sellers and film/TV adaptations cemented his iconic status and opened the world's doors, and all the while le Carré made detailed mental notes. With a storyteller's craftsmanship, he recounts escapades with a list of notables-and his own frayed family-in British intelligence, as a writer, deep-background researcher, teacher, linguist, illustrator, and adventurer. Why would a listener choose le Carré's memoir when Adam Sisman's thorough and recent John le Carré: The Biography is available? Because this life story is read by the person who lived it, rendering it intimate and personal. In fact, if only one format of The Pigeon Tunnel could be purchased, it should be the audiobook. Not only is it delivered with the zest of a raconteur, but le Carré animates voices and inflections with an actor's finesse, whether the speaker is Yasser Arafat or Margaret Thatcher. One need not be a le Carré devotee to be captivated by this vivid memoir. VERDICT Will appeal broadly to le Carré fans, history buffs, movie aficionados, and readers of biography and intelligent fiction of various genres. ["Highly recommended for readers interested in the history and evolution of the spy trade and political intrigue from a participant's perspective": LJ 9/15/16 starred review of the Viking hc.]-Judith Robinson, Univ. at Buffalo © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
