ATIKA ASSESS Call For The Dead by John Le Carré

By John

Cold War espionage, foggy mid century London, superb prose and only 170 odd pages. Read the lot on Christmas day.  Le Carré knew his stuff; serving both MI5 & MI6 Spymasters whilst writing this, his first book. 

Call for the Dead is a perfectly paced crime novel. Engaging enough to keep me focused without feeling like I have to find somewhere quiet to concentrate. That’s why I picked it up from ATIKA whilst on my way out of the door for Xmas. Le Carré is one of my go to authors for journeys, holidays, waiting rooms.

It is satisfying that the first Le Carré features his most notable and frequent protagonist. George Smiley is a long standing cult character. Grey, yet colourful, fragile but tough, smart but fallible. Of course Smiley always gets his man but the author conveys the sense that every step takes a heavy, creeping toll on those in the game. It's the human cost of a world devoid of trust and faith, where these basic human expectations are put aside for some in order to ensure the nation’s ability to enjoy those very things. Utility laid bare. One suffers so that the many can be spared. “However closely we live together, at whatever time of day or night we sound the deepest thoughts in one another, we know nothing”.

Smiley will always be Alec Guiness in my mind. Calm, brooding, needle sharp. A weapon; fashioned to fight the new order, from a material formed in the public school world of the old order. 

Great book. Easy read. Provocative yet reassuring.