Una pequena ciudad en Alemania (Spanish Edition) (urspr publ 1968; utgåvan 2003)

While I enjoyed almost the entire book, I could never figure out what was supposed to have happened in the "epilogue" (which is more like an action-packed last chapter in a novel otherwise devoid of action, but I suppose was denominated "epilogue" so as to pair it with the "prologue," the only other place in the novel where Harting actually appears), despite having read it several times. No doubt I am missing something very obvious. I know who dies, but I couldn't quite follow who was doing what where and why... ( )

BG-5

Almost a mediocre effort on the part of John le Carré. The "small town in Germany" is Bonn, the erstwhile capital of West Germany. The novel does create the atmosphere that used to exist in the city, almost as if time itself was suspended, stuck in the 1950s. Yet all the while the influence of "Little America," the US Embassy and its associated estates, movie theaters, stores, and other entertainment facilities, hovered over all. Le Carré refers to this as "Coca Cola culture." Against this background, there has been an upset within the British Embassy. The down at the heels British have someone, Leo Harting, working within their building who is collecting data and stealing files. This brings in Alan Turner, whose job it is to find Harting before he makes a getaway or worse, as it turns out.

I am guessing that le Carré was much influenced by Rashomon, for his novel follows a similar structure. Each chapter consists of Turner questioning different embassy employees about Harting. And each one has a much different view of the man, his capabilities, and his aims. In the process, I'll credit the author for doing a nice job of skewering the petty jealousies, greed, and ambitions at work among British diplomats and their support staff. Turner's time with Jenny Partiger, for example, peels away her self defense and pathetic lies not so much like the layers of an onion but as with removing a single brick resulting in the collapse of an entire dam. She has been made Harting's dupe and strung along almost as if she were a teenager mooning for love. Nobody within the embassy is able to match their characters or emotions to the seriousness of their work.

Finally, there is the barely veiled attack on Kurt Kiesinger, the West German chancellor in the late 1960s. Clearly, this is who le Carré's Klaus Karfeld is supposed to mirror. The exaggerations, supposition, and outright inventions that he applies to Kiesinger/Karfeld are pretty much an embarrassment. Kiesinger's actual biography doesn't bear out the innuendo and specific charges that le Carré makes claim to.

Despite all that, the novel still works well enough as a basic thriller of sorts. ( )

This is apparently one of le Carre's less admired novels, which surprises me because I thought it was excellent. There are a few sections of speechifying which stop the story in its tracks, as well as a couple of instances where the prose becomes too self-consciously literary. But for the most part this is a tightly written, sharply observed, and utterly engrossing novel. It's a spy novel, in the sense that there are spies, but it's really a political novel. The "small town in Germany" is Bonn, the capital of West Germany, and the story of the disappearance of Embassy functionary Leo Harting is set in the "near future" when joining the Common Market was still an ongoing process. Britain hasn't reconciled itself to its diminished role in the world, and le Carre describes the pomposity of the diplomatic classes with great acerbity.

The twin challenges of a populist German activist and political hopeful pushing for greater links with the USSR (and therefore with East Germany) and Common Market negotiations play out against the backdrop of the main plot, in which Alan Turner comes from London to investigate Harting's disappearance and recover the files Harting stole before he vanished. Turner is vaguely Leamas-like, a bull in a china shop who is impatient of the hypocrises (necessary and otherwise) of the diplomatic and espionage upper echelons. The storyline is very twisty and while I guessed at some of it, the main reveal was a surprise to me (and much more substantively interesting than what I was expecting).

Like the rest of le Carre's Cold War novels, reading this in 2018 is uncomfortably apt. We have populists, easily swayed citizenry, shady diplomatic dealings, and lots of coverups. Hopefully we also have some bulls in china shops, even if they don't fully win in the end. ( )

I've read some le Carré in the past and they've been pretty decent, this is one of his earlier books and I have to say it's clear that it is, he hasn't quite polished his writing style yet and the plot is rather stiff and jerkily unfolded. Don't get me wrong, there is a good story within the pages, but the way he manages to convey the story is, well, rather dull. There's moments were it seems like things are about to get interesting but it just never quite gets there.

The story is set in West Germany within the backdrop of Britain attempting to join the European Economic Community (what will become the European Union) and a member of the United Kingdom's German embassy disappears with sensitive files causing concern that the membership process in Brussels will be derailed. Among this there is a rising pro-Russian politician who seems to hate the British and a spycatcher, Alan Turner is brought in from England to find the missing staff member.

It fills in time but it's pretty dry, if you have the choice between this and something else, I'd choose something else unless you're a die hard John le Carré fan and wish to see the evolution of his writing.