Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is GREAT and has DRUNK MIDDLE-AGED SAD CYNICAL LADY KGB AGENTS (at least..in the background) and DRUNK ELDERLY BRILLIANT LADY MI5 MEMBERS and everything is unbelievably seventies and grim and horrible and everyone! clearly! knows! it was the Mole! but has Too Many Feelings. And there is PTSD and found families and a LOT of vodka and it is hella queer. Also one of the major themes is Boarding School Is Terrible, which, important! It's also somewhat...lacking...in actual ideology...in some ways.....
(I'm sorry I REALLY WANT TO SEE YOU REVIEW IT)
...anyway my non-recommendation recommendation for Cambridge Spies is Nicholas Monsarrat's "SMITH AND JONES" which is, like, a thinly veiled version of Burgess and Maclean's defection, except his thin veiling is:
[[SPOILER but also it's a TERRIBLE BOOK and this STUPID SPOILER is the only thing worth reading about it]]
1. They are now called "Smith and Jones" instead 2. They have to play the ukulele on Soviet television for reasons. 3. PLOT TWIST ON THE LAST PAGE IT WAS SET IN COMMUNIST MONTREAL ALL ALONG (I swear this happened but I CAN'T FIND THE LAST PAGE ON GOOGLE BOOKS SO I MAY HAVE IMAGINED THIS WHOLE THING)
I can't stress how little this is set up at any point, or explained, or....
no subject
(I'm sorry I REALLY WANT TO SEE YOU REVIEW IT)
...anyway my non-recommendation recommendation for Cambridge Spies is Nicholas Monsarrat's "SMITH AND JONES" which is, like, a thinly veiled version of Burgess and Maclean's defection, except his thin veiling is:
[[SPOILER but also it's a TERRIBLE BOOK and this STUPID SPOILER is the only thing worth reading about it]]
1. They are now called "Smith and Jones" instead
2. They have to play the ukulele on Soviet television for reasons.
3. PLOT TWIST ON THE LAST PAGE IT WAS SET IN COMMUNIST MONTREAL ALL ALONG (I swear this happened but I CAN'T FIND THE LAST PAGE ON GOOGLE BOOKS SO I MAY HAVE IMAGINED THIS WHOLE THING)
I can't stress how little this is set up at any point, or explained, or....