John Le Carrré: Single & Single

[lindaj07]

Alec Guinness as Smiley?

I loved Alec Guinness too,(I like him in anything!) but what part did Donald Pleasance play? He was great too! I can't believe LeCarre was trying to get away from Alec Guinness. I prefer to think that the cold war thing was out of date..... Oh! Don't laugh too loud! Too many braincells under the bridge I think?!? I will check out the sequence and get back...

I think the first novel he wrote that was not Cold War was The Little Drummer Girl. Apparently he wrote that to get away from Smiley, as he didn't like Alec Guinness's characterisation in the BBC series. (HOW could anyone not like that? )

 

[Peder]

I enjoyed Drummer Girl immensely! It has action and scenes full of tension and dramamtic development, and is one of the non-Cold-War books that deserves a rave IMO. Just the recruitment of the drummer girl and the creation of a false persona were worth the price of admission for me. I'd never seen that done in fiction before. Or in fact-spy either, for that matter.
Peder

 

[novella]

I loved Alec Guinness too,(I like him in anything!) but what part did Donald Pleasance play? He was great too! I can't believe LeCarre was trying to get away from Alec Guinness. I prefer to think that the cold war thing was out of date..... Oh! Don't laugh too loud! Too many braincells under the bridge I think?!? I will check out the sequence and get back...

I've heard and read several Le Carre interviews in which he says Guinness didn't capture the Smiley that he'd imagined, and that his popularity in the series was a huge disappointment and put pressure on him to keep writing for that character, which he hated. Smiley appears in later books (like Drummer Girl), but only in references, not as a character.

I always think of that in stark contrast to John Mortimer's Rumpole, where Leo McKern's onscreen character inspired him to write more and to see things in the character that he wanted to develop. He loved working with the actor.

 

[lindaj07]

Le Carre Website

I found a website so won't bother boring you all with a list of Le Carre novels, when you can see them for yourselves.

http://www.johnlecarre.com/chronological.html

Now I see that The Little Drummer Girl was published in 1983, why did I expect it to be 89 or 90? Except that that would be the time of the end of the Cold War of course! I'm beginning to think that at the time the cold war ended, I just decided that Le Carre was out of date, without any evidence.

I don't remember the Palestinian thing at all in Little Drummer Girl but I remember one book that I thought was great, Our Game published in 1995.

First on my list for re-reading is Drummer Girl I think, sounds good.

To change the subject completely...

Rumpole!! Great stuff! The TV series is currently being re-run here!
I'm not really pathetic I already had this website from years ago when he died but it's still quite nice!
http://www.tvheaven.ca/rumpole.htm

I've heard and read several Le Carre interviews in which he says Guinness didn't capture the Smiley that he'd imagined, and that his popularity in the series was a huge disappointment and put pressure on him to keep writing for that character, which he hated. Smiley appears in later books (like Drummer Girl), but only in references, not as a character.

I always think of that in stark contrast to John Mortimer's Rumpole, where Leo McKern's onscreen character inspired him to write more and to see things in the character that he wanted to develop. He loved working with the actor.

 

[clueless]

I am not surprised he was disappointed with Alec Guiness. Think of the way he describes Smiley- pudgy, with a risible physical appearance which leads his wife to infidelity and everybody else to think they can get the better of him - which, of course, it is not true. Would anyone see Alec Guiness like that?

 

[lindaj07]

Leaving out the pudgy, wasn't Alex Guinness pretty risible in appearance? I think he was an actor, not a looker and anyway, what happened to artistic licence? The funny thing for me is that I always saw Donald Pleasance as Smiley, so maybe you have a point?

I am not surprised he was disappointed with Alec Guiness. Think of the way he describes Smiley- pudgy, with a risible physical appearance which leads his wife to infidelity and everybody else to think they can get the better of him - which, of course, it is not true. Would anyone see Alec Guiness like that?

 

[novella]

Hold on a sec. Alec Guinness was supremely cute. Have you ever seen The Man in the White Suit or Great Expectations? Of course when he played Smiley, he became Smiley, hence his appearance in that. A truly great actor.

 

[lindaj07]

Supremely cute?

Did you see Lavender Hill Gang? He seems to have some kind of false teeth in that film, that seem to distort his face, supposedly to make him look evil but actually making him look very funny. The thing about Guinness is that he changes his appearance on a regular basis. This, for me is the sign of a really great actor, I agree, but paticularly as a comedy actor. Of course, "when he played Smiley, he became Smiley" seems to agree with what I was saying, he wasn't pudgy enough though, that would be my only criticism.

Hold on a sec. Alec Guinness was supremely cute. Have you ever seen The Man in the White Suit or Great Expectations? Of course when he played Smiley, he became Smiley, hence his appearance in that. A truly great actor.

 

[novella]

There's a great interview from 1995 of John Le Carre, in front of a live audience. The interviewer is George Plimpton of the Paris Review. Really worth listening to.

http://www.parisreview.com/viewaudio.php/prmMID/5276

 

[pontalba]

I thought I'd read all of John Le Carre, but I seem to have missed Single & Single, so I'm starting it today. Has anyone out there read it and do you have anything to say about it?

BTW, I heard an interview with him on Fresh Air (radio show) this week and he was great. Mostly there to promote The Constant Gardener, but I'm a big fan of his cloak-and-dagger biographical tales--the con-artist dad, the trips to Monte Carlo, lying about everything . . .

Well, I'm a bit late in this, but I didn't care for this one. His older stuff is better IMHO.