Call for the Dead A George Smiley Novel (Audible Audio Edition) John le Carré Michael Jayston Penguin Audio Books
Download As PDF : Call for the Dead A George Smiley Novel (Audible Audio Edition) John le Carré Michael Jayston Penguin Audio Books
George Smiley is no one's idea of a spy - which is perhaps why he's such a natural. But Smiley apparently made a mistake. After a routine security interview, he concluded that the affable Samuel Fennan had nothing to hide. Why, then, did the man from the Foreign Office shoot himself in the head only hours later? Or did he?
The heart-stopping tale of intrigue that launched both novelist and spy, Call for the Dead is an essential introduction to le Carre's chillingly amoral universe.
Call for the Dead A George Smiley Novel (Audible Audio Edition) John le Carré Michael Jayston Penguin Audio Books
"Smiley was no material for promotion and it dawned on him gradually that he had entered middle age without ever being young, and that he was ‒ in the nicest possible way ‒ on the shelf." ‒ from CALL FOR THE DEADI've been a tremendous fan of John le Carré's George Smiley for years. How could one not be, especially after having seen the BBC's exemplary television adaptations of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People, both starring Alec Guinness?
CALL FOR THE DEAD was first published in 1962 when I was but thirteen. (It's hard to believe I was ever that juvenile. I may have read the book in the intervening years, though I suspect not. But, alas, memory fails.)
At this late date after Smiley has disappeared from le Carré's repertoire and Sir Alec is deceased, the chief delight for me in CALL FOR THE DEAD was learning about George's induction into the Secret Service, his early assignments recruiting and running German agents against the Nazi regime, and his marriage to Ann. Even Smiley was young once, though he apparently missed the high points.
Smiley's introduction to the readers of spy fiction takes place in his world of 1961 when George, while investigating the apparent suicide of a Foreign Office official shortly after being interviewed (by George) regarding his wartime membership in the Communist Party, encounters a blast from his own wartime past.
To those who've followed George's adventures over the years, it's evident in CALL FOR THE DEAD ‒ which was also the author's very first novel ‒ that the Smiley's character is in for considerable development over future years. Indeed, George must rely on the efforts of others, particularly an Inspector Mendel, to bring this case to a successful conclusion. Without Mendel, I doubt that Smiley would've pulled it off. In le Carré's later stories featuring George , especially when he's up against the Soviet master-spy controller Karla, our hero takes center stage, however low key and inscrutable in manner, and relinquishes it to no one.
For readers of today's younger generations who may only be familiar with the author's most recent works and know nothing of Smiley, CALL FOR THE DEAD is the place to start. The Cold War is over, but George is timeless.
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Call for the Dead A George Smiley Novel (Audible Audio Edition) John le Carré Michael Jayston Penguin Audio Books Reviews
Having enjoyed the "Smiley trilogy" (Tinker, Tailor / Honorable Schoolboy / Smiley's People) and enjoyed them immensely - Call for the Dead is a prequel of sorts that introduces you to some of the main characters earlier in their careers. If you're a le Carre fan - you will enjoy this book. If you're new to le Carre this isn't a "typical spy" thriller - it's a leisurely journey with George Smiley as he unravels the case systematically, eliminating suspects methodically. The book was written quite a while ago so some of the references may be a little hard to follow, but I think it still holds up fairly well. I enjoyed it and would recommend it. Spurred me to go back and read the trilogy and some of the newer books that I had missed.
I've read a few of the Smiley novels over the years and generally liked them. It is a mystery to me why, now, I have embarked upon the journey of reading them all -- in order.
The plot, of course, is superb, and the characters convincingly three-dimensional. Two unrelated items deserve mention
1) DO NOT skip the Preface, in which the author charmingly explains how the Smiley novels came to be. Absolutely fascinating.
2) The diction and idiom are markedly more British here than in the later Smileys I've read (written with American as well as British markets in mind). Having lived in England for a year gave me a leg up, but I found myself relying upon 's lookup function A LOT. It doesn't help that single words which an American "knows" can have very different meanings in England, but the average American reader will never think to look them up. Hence four stars, not five. But don't be put off! Buy it! Read it! And remember that this annoyance continues to abate throughout the later novels.
I wrote this for the other DVD of A Murder of Quality
"I can no longer recall if this is the first of the Smiley character novels by John Le Carre' or whether it is "Call for the Dead". Doesn't matter, both are great stories that get foreshadowed by the even greater story of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and the even greater production of the story by Sir Alec Guinness as Smiley in the PBS series of Tinker Tailor. Nevertheless, this is still a great story and well acted movie. Eclipsed by the other production of Smiley with Sir Alec Guinness. It'll entertain you as a thrilling story. The intellectual spy as detective. Great stuff."
The questions asked for doing the review such as How would you describe the plot -- slow, some twists, full of surprises" just don't pertain to John Le Carre'. Of course it isn't James Bond and there aren't a bunch of thrilling car chases and shoot outs; This is Le Carre' --- his Smiley is an intellectual spy (turned detective for some of the early books) and still a detective in the finest sense of the word as he unravels the layered on clues that expose the truth. It isn't supposed to have action; it has enough following the seemingly minor things that put the jigsaw together. This is how you think of spies whether MI 5 or CIA doing the hard work of sifting through a lot of things to make a true picture appear.
Having read almost all of the works of John Le Carre, I decided to read this, his first novel, where the character is first introduced. I felt like I was getting reacquainted with an old friend. The author's writing style was superb and worth savoring in even his first books. This was followed later in his masterful Karla trilogy with Smiley again as the principal character. Le Carre was an unknown writer at the time and did not become the famous spy thriller author until he published "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold". Critics have compared subsequent spy novelists to Le Carre but he is in a class of his own.
"Smiley was no material for promotion and it dawned on him gradually that he had entered middle age without ever being young, and that he was ‒ in the nicest possible way ‒ on the shelf." ‒ from CALL FOR THE DEAD
I've been a tremendous fan of John le Carré's George Smiley for years. How could one not be, especially after having seen the BBC's exemplary television adaptations of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Smiley's People, both starring Alec Guinness?
CALL FOR THE DEAD was first published in 1962 when I was but thirteen. (It's hard to believe I was ever that juvenile. I may have read the book in the intervening years, though I suspect not. But, alas, memory fails.)
At this late date after Smiley has disappeared from le Carré's repertoire and Sir Alec is deceased, the chief delight for me in CALL FOR THE DEAD was learning about George's induction into the Secret Service, his early assignments recruiting and running German agents against the Nazi regime, and his marriage to Ann. Even Smiley was young once, though he apparently missed the high points.
Smiley's introduction to the readers of spy fiction takes place in his world of 1961 when George, while investigating the apparent suicide of a Foreign Office official shortly after being interviewed (by George) regarding his wartime membership in the Communist Party, encounters a blast from his own wartime past.
To those who've followed George's adventures over the years, it's evident in CALL FOR THE DEAD ‒ which was also the author's very first novel ‒ that the Smiley's character is in for considerable development over future years. Indeed, George must rely on the efforts of others, particularly an Inspector Mendel, to bring this case to a successful conclusion. Without Mendel, I doubt that Smiley would've pulled it off. In le Carré's later stories featuring George , especially when he's up against the Soviet master-spy controller Karla, our hero takes center stage, however low key and inscrutable in manner, and relinquishes it to no one.
For readers of today's younger generations who may only be familiar with the author's most recent works and know nothing of Smiley, CALL FOR THE DEAD is the place to start. The Cold War is over, but George is timeless.
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