"...a framed photograph that hung centre stage on the back wall, showing a Socratic, bespectacled gentleman in rounded collars and black jacket, frowning on a younger world."

John le Carre knows he is writing a spy thriller which will become a blockbuster movie so he has left the details of his "Socratic" portrait to the casting director or prop department, as the case may be.

Few writers have the opportunity to write so self-consciously for readers and viewers at the same time. [Perhaps he also visualized Pierce Brosnan in the lead when he wrote the story.]

John le Carre knows he is writing a spy thriller
And at the time, writers of such literature were busily fighting for respectability. One ploy was to sprinkle the text with more or less enigmatic "classical" references.

Poor old John le Carre. He had a niche which he did really well - cold war spy scenarios - and which I reread again and again, still stunned by the attention to detail and the word pictures he could build up of the situation. A Small Town in Germany is still, I think, the best, although of course the Smiley books were absolutely brilliant.

But now he's floundering around looking for a new genre. None of his post cold war novels have really grabbed me. The Little Drummer Girl came and went, quality-wise, and The Tailor of Panama was downright boring IMHO.

Another author of that ilk, and who has had his most famous book filmed, is Martin Cruz Smith. The Renko trilogy (which has, of course, become a quadlogy) were absolutely brilliant, a Soviet-era policeman stumbling through life in an amazingly believable welter of competence, incompetence, blind luck and sheer bloodymindedness. Smith is another author who doesn't do so well outside of his normal milieu; Gypsy in Amber was laboured by comparison with Gorky Park or Red Square. Red Square would film well, although I think they'd have to alter Polar Star quite considerably to make it "fly" as a film.

Sorry. Rambling rather than working. Software testing is NOT fun ...

Poor old John le Carre

Does he still write them, his own se'f?

Yes, unless (a) he's died (possible, (b) I didn't hear about it (likely) or (c) he's stopped writing books which I believe would be dependent on (a).

I don't think anyone could ape his style anyway. I've tried and failed, since I admire his approach so much. You have to think the way he does ...

And BTW, "The Constant Gardener" was pretty good, in direct contradiction to what I posted above.

I don't think le Carre has ever written a book with the screen play in the back of his mind.

I just asked cause so many of these thangs are franchised these days. A writer gets so popular that demand outstrips supply and Bonzo's yer uncle. If the quality's been slipping that might be what's happening.

"I don't think le Carre has ever written a book with the screen play in the back of his mind."

Me neither... at least not Brosnan for Osnard; there are ample references in the book that Osnard was 'portly'... not how I'd describe Brosnan.

PS: Thanks for the review... I've just started reading le Carre... "A Perfect Spy" was my first one - loved it - "A Tailor.." is the second. Seems good so far... dunno how well he'll build upto the core issue though. Glad to be warned; keeps one from having great expectations...

...a wise-looking man.

Jackie - What the ***** is that supposed to mean???
Mercy--just that the reader is supposed to imagine the character with a wise expression on his face.
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A writer gets so popular that demand outstrips supply
Yes--I was quite shocked to learn of this practice, back when my daughter was in the Baby-sitters' Club stage. Ann M. Martin had all kinds of ghost-writers, apparently, after Vol. 50 or so. I just figured it was for "bubble gum" type books like this, though, not serious writers like LeCarré.

Who is this ghost person called "Mercy"???

I'm still waiting for a *reasonable definition of "wise expression"...hardee-har-har