Day 166: The Spy Who Came in From the Cold

This is one of the rare books that I started and finished in a single weekend because it was harder to put down than pick up. I don't even have a 'first look' post for this one because it's too late for that already. Le Carre had me hooked from the second I picked it up. I started reading and before I knew it, it was 3 AM and half the book was gone. It's a shorter novel at 60,000 words, but that's not too uncommon for the average thriller. This novel is anything but average however. Even calling it a thriller is a bit of a mislead. It's a spy novel, no two ways about it. Really it captures the essence of espionage that doesn't come through in most popular spy media. We have been conditioned by the likes of James Bond, Ethan Hunt (Mission Impossible), and Natasha Romanov (Black Widow) to see spies as action heroes, their movies full of explosions, car chases, running and gunning. 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' has none of that. There is exactly one fight scene. It lasts less than a page and happens in complete darkness. In fact, most of the book is just people talking to one another, yet it holds more suspense and sheer danger in each of those interviews than all of those movies above combined.

There is no running for Alec Leamas, because his enemies can catch him if they really wanted to. There are no explosions, because blowing someone up won't solve the problems he's faced with. He doesn't carry a gun, because his enemies wouldn't let him in their house if he did. The only real power in Leamas' possession is the information inside his head, and the subtlety of his deceptive wiles. The secret of this novel's powerful suspense is Leamas' vulnerability. With one last chance to exact revenge on the brutal East German counterintelligence director, Hans-Dieter Mundt, he'll have to take greatest risks of his entire career, putting himself in a position so precarious that if things go wrong he'll never find a way out. But for Leamas' this last chance is one he can't turn down. Mundt is the agent who stifled his career, routed his entire network, and had his last and best agent shot down before his very eyes. He must have his revenge, but it'll have to be a subtle affair.

This story is just too good to ruin so I'll sum up my thoughts about the book here first, but if you want my full thoughts and a summary you can keep reading below the following paragraph (because I can't figure out how to make a spoiler section that actually functions the way I want, but don't tell anyone I said that).

I almost regret reading this book first because I have no doubt it's going to make the Bond novel look incredibly hokey by comparison. Maybe I'm wrong, I hope I'm wrong, but somehow I doubt it. 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold' really is a masterpiece. It changed my perspective on what spy novels are, and how subtle a thriller can be, so much so that I'd like to work some of that into my own writing in the future. This one is going straight into my favorite books list, and due to it's short length, will probably be one of the few books I reread over the years.

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley

Control is the man behind the scenes working the plot to his country's favor, the one holding all the cards and pulling all the strings, along with the mysterious George Smiley. Together with Leamas, they hatch a plot to ensnare Mundt in a trap, contriving a mountain of circumstantial evidence that will implicate him as a double agent working for British Intelligence. If they can reveal these "facts" about Mundt's true allegiances cleverly enough, then the Socialist Party will hang him themselves.

Leamas plans to deliver the clues in a series of interviews with the East German intelligence agency referred to as the Abteilung. When plans are laid out this far in advance, you know trickery is going to be the name of the game. These plans are fully revealed as the novel moves forward, hinted at here and there. Le Carre is really a master of revealing information to the reader, slowly dripping these things in, letting you realize the 'truth' of the situation as it's presented. One of those critical truths is that the agent second in command of the Abteilung, Fiedler, has a powerful hatred of Mundt that they plan to use to their favor. But first, Leamas must turn himself into a wretch, a drunkard that speaks ill of his own agency at most every turn. British Intelligence (referred to as the Circus) in turn rejects him, shelves him unfairly, ruins his pension, and leaves him nigh-destitute. Finally, Leamas must go to prison to cap off the deception.

Before his incarceration however, he meets a young woman, Elizabeth Gold. Their romance leaves Leamas even more vulnerable than he would be otherwise, and though he takes steps to ensure her safety, his pleas to leave her out of the game go unheeded by the Circus, and she's drawn in, slowly but surely over the course of the novel. The irony of this is that his own agent Karl Riemeck was revealed by a lover of his own. The agent who Mundt had shot down before him. Leamas is determined not to make the same mistake, and reveals very little her. When he has to say goodbye for the last time, and she promises never to follow him, he believes that may be the last he ever sees of her.

After assaulting a grocer, and weathering his stay in prison, Leamas is approached by an agent from the Abteilung as expected. He allows himself to be turned to the other side, and defects with the agent back to East Berlin. Through a series of interviews, the small bits and pieces of evidence against Mundt start to pile up. Fiedler turns out to be a brilliant intelligence agent who has already made Mundt. The clues that Control and George Smiley have put down over the years have been picked up by Fiedler without fail. But he still needs the final nails to put in Mundt's coffin, nails that Leamas leaks through his interviews. I can't overstate the lengths Leamas goes to during this section of the novel. He has a deep understanding of his own character, and is able to turn his own flaws (his pride, his alcoholism, his bitterness towards the Circus) into fuel for the role he must play. This level of characterization, a person who can understand themselves so well that they can seem not themselves, really blew me away. Likewise, Fiedler is a thoroughly characterized, deeply intelligent, and even gentle and kind at times. As their mutual respect grows throughout the interviews, Leamas learns that Fiedler's hate for Mundt goes much deeper than a lust for power. Mundt is essentially a Nazi, with a terrible hatred for Jews like Fiedler. This plays into Leamas' hands conveniently, and further fuels his hatred for Mundt, as Liz was also a Jew.

With the last of the evidence he needs, Fiedler springs his trap on Mundt by sending a report out to the governing body of the Socialist Party. The Party convenes a trial and arrests Mundt in the nick of time. While on trial, Leamas' critical weakness as a witness is exploited. Mundt's defense has brought Liz all the way from London to discuss her relationship with Leamas, and under questioning she reveals several of the lies Leamas has told about his distaste for the Circus, his lack of contacts therein, and the nature of his defection. The things the Circus provided for Liz against Leamas' wishes damn him irrevocably, and it's clear that Control and George Smiley were thinking clearly. Things are turned completely around on him and Fiedler, and he's forced to confess that his defection was a ruse to secure Liz's safety, dooming Fiedler in the process.

Liz, imprisoned nonetheless along with Leamas, is aided in her escape by none other than Mundt himself. The twist that's been brewing is revealed, as Mundt really was a double agent for the Circus all along. Fiedler's talents had him sniffing around Mundt for years, but the Circus still needed him in place as the director of counter intelligence. The subtle plan that Control and George Smiley crafted for Leamas was sabotaged from the beginning, designed to reveal all of Fiedler's suspicions, all the circumstantial evidence he'd acquired, as a clever ploy by British intelligence to frame Mundt as a spy. Of course, in reality, that is exactly what he is. Now the Party's highest ranking counterintelligence officer has been exonerated, and his only competition put to death. Leamas completed his true, but secret (even to himself) objective.

On their way out of East Berlin, climbing over the wall to freedom, Liz is shot down despite Mundt's promise that their escape would be a safe one. Leamas cannot bear to leave her, and instead stays by her side until the sentries are forced to shoot him as well.

The reader is left to wonder, did the good guys really win?

Thank you for reading,

Benjamin Hawley