John le Carré's private life, revealed in letters and a kiss-and-tell

Re:John le Carré's private life, revealed in letters and a k... by taude on Tuesday October 18, 2022 @06:12PM (#33254748)

His style and pace is a lot different than the modern genre writers like Vince Flynn, Lee Child, and even Ludlum (though Ludlam was of similar age) which excel at fast plot driven stories. A lot of Le Carre's stuff is from the '60s and '70s, and I'm not sure how well it actually ages. (I haven't read him since 1990ish, and I've been wanting to read the Tinker series, just never got past the first chapter.)

I remember that even the movie version of The Russia house was a little slow, and it came out on the tail end of the cold war era.

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Re:John le Carré's private life, revealed in letters and a k... by ghaff on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @08:41AM (#33261264)

I admit I was always much more in the Ludlum camp when I was reading the genre 20-30 years ago. I've read Le Carre and watched the films but, while I could appreciate what his admirers were saying, I never really got into him.

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Re:John le Carré's private life, revealed in letters and a k... by jhbadger on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @11:13AM (#33263418)

Ludlum's books are pure escapism, similar to the James Bond books. Le Carre's books are much more realistic describing how espionage is really done, which is mostly paperwork and interviewing people. Which admittedly is less exciting than gunfights and car chases.

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Re:John le Carré's private life, revealed in letters and a k... by ghaff on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @12:20PM (#33264408)

Totally. I just never really got into them.

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