Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by le Carre

British agent Ricki Tarr through an affair with a wife of a the KGB officer, discovers that there is a Soviet mole, codenamed ‘Gerald’, at the highest echelon of the British Secret Intelligence Service – the Circus. George Smiley who was forced to retire for suspecting the presence of a mole a few years earlier, is called back to the service. After 30 years of successful work in the Circus, he investigates the case in secrecy, along with Peter Guillam the superior of Tarr. They learn that Gerald is responsible for the failure of the mission in Czechoslovakia during which the Circus’ agent Jim Prideaux was shot in the arm and undercovered. Smiley discovers also, that the aim of Jim Prideaux’ Operation Testify was to uncover the mole by receiving information from the KGB officer. During the investigation, Smiley learns that his wife - Ann was betraying him even with his best friends. Finally, a respected old friend of Smiley and lover of Ann - Bill Haydon is found to be the shot double agent recruited from Oxford University by Russian general - Karla. Haydon is in prison where he confess to Smiley. Waiting for a journey to the USRR he is killed by his best friend, lover and co-worker – Jim Prideaux. Temporarily, George Smiley is made the Circus head. The title refers to the codenames of four senior agents, assigned to them by the former Circus head – Control. The names derive from the English children’s rhyme, so that Prideaux could easily recall them. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy refers to ‘The Cambridge Five’ scandal and Kim Philby – MI6 agent who was recruited by the KGB while studying at University of Cambridge. ^[1]

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is not a typical espionage novel. There are only a few important events described. Most of the time, the character’s interactions are presented. Every character in the le Carre’s novel is complex. Spies lie to spies and civilians are not honest with each other. All of the relationships are very complicated because le Carre’s characters are lovers, traitors, friends and enemies at the same time. All characters have secrets partially known to some of the others. The problem of identities  of the characters has many different layers which intertwine and affects one another.

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[1]             FBI Official Website. “Cambridge Five Spy Ring, Documents of FBI”, Web.: 3.11.2012. <http://vault.fbi.gov/Cambridge%20Five%20Spy%20Ring>.