A Legacy of Spies

A Legacy Of Spies is ostensibly set in the present, but le Carré is necessarily vague about exactly when the events of the novel take place, otherwise Peter Guillam is preternaturally young, and George Smiley's continued lucid existence almost entirely improbable. The book closes with Guillam noting that the events described took place a long time ago.

I've mixed feelings about this book. There are numerous little inconsistencies that trip up the continuity between this and The Spy Who Came In From The Cold. Considering how much of the background to the earlier novel Legacy fills in, such anomalies are irritating. Legacy essentially cannot exist apart from its famed predecessor, and continuity errors aside there is no evidence of le Carré's powers declining in his old age, so I'm at a loss as to why he allowed them through. They were always going to be noticed by the target audience, i.e. fans of Spy.

But plot details have possibly taken a back seat to le Carré's major theme here as I see it: that spies are flawed human beings, and their very human emotions and selfish motives can fatally blind their judgement, leading to tragedy and lifelong repercussions for all involved.

A satisfying book? Somewhat. But in once more cracking open a window upon the Circus le Carré shattered the completeness and self-containedness of Spy, retrospectively creating loose ends and reawakening a dormant curiosity that by the end of Legacy was nowhere near satisfied.