Interesting and Rare Inteview With 'John Le Carre''

[Jan Klimkowski]

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy remains one of English's literature's most compelling and masterful meditations on betrayal -- of country, of lover, of friend, of colleague, of class, and of self.

It grew from le Carre's obsession with Kim Philby, which initially presented as outrage at the ultimate betrayer. Yet there always seemed to be a hitch in le Carre's swings at Philby (to use an American baseball term), and what later emerged was the realization that no flag was any more or less deserving of allegiance than any other.

"You're my country now," says Barley Blair to Katya in The Russia House.

Indeed.

Le Carre himself hides behind multiple veils, as if afraid of too much light.

Cornwell's seclusion in Cornwall, in a house perched on a mile of cliff which he owns, is a metaphor worthy of Joseph Conrad.

"They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience."
Under Western Eyes