Seventeen true short stories from the life of Maggie O'Farrell. These brushes with death are interwoven with a proper memoir. The writing, as always from this author, is first class. "That the things in life which don't go to plan are usually more important, more formative, in the long run, than the things that do". It's just a shame that the first of the stories is so truly devastating that those that follow cannot hope to match. But they are all little gems.
This took me back. I read "The Spy who came in from the Cold" in the mid sixties and that started me off reading every John le Carre novel, and there have been quite a few. Despite his being well into his eighties, he has not lost his touch. It helps to have some recollection of that earlier novel, (I suggest a recap from a plot summary) although my memory is mainly of the movie with Richard Burton as Alec Leamas.
The new book cleverly revisits the ramifications of the plot for Leamas to infiltrate East German intelligence that proved such a disaster. When our narrator, Peter Guillam (one of top spy George Smiley's assistants in those cold war sixties), is summoned from retirement, it is he who faces interrogation about his role in the ill-fated Operation Windfall.
Where are we in time? Not present day certainly. There are computers but no mention of mobile phones. And Smiley is still alive! The story cleverly weaves the inquiry with events and characters from the past. The writing is as great as ever and I raced through the book far too quickly. Will Benedict Cumberbatch be aged to play a much older Peter Guillam in the movie?
We have to wait until the end to find out what devastating thing happened at the party. The build up is cleverly constructed although the back stories do interupt the events of that night, and whilst these are interesting in their own way, they do create too mant diversions from the main plot.
There are, however, some quite staggering sequences; one towards the end, that is a conversation between two of the main characters, is momentous. The book reads like a thriller , thinly disguised as a character driven drama. I raced through it in no time.
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