THE HONOURABLE SCHOOLBOY by John Le Carré

John Le Carré has been a favourite author for decades, ever since I read The Little Drummer Girl when I was in my 20s. His careful and even paced, possibly slow crafting of a story, the reveal of the characters, the extraordinary quantity of unspoken language and communication that takes place in the spy game, the subconscious reading of a situation or a person. It's mysterious, unreadable, grim, working up to the excitement of rare moments of monumental action then steep declines into the daily plod and grind. I read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy last year, loved it, and was excited to be starting this second in the George Smiley/Karla trilogy. 

Not quite the same reading experience as Tinker, or of any other Le Carré novel I have read. For a start it is extremely long - nearly 700 pages. It is burdened down at the beginning with so much scene setting, so many characters, so much going on but none of it at any pace. It follows on immediately from Tinker in the late 1960s, starting in Hong Kong, the HK part of the Secret Service now in a total freefall, the fall out from Haydon shrinking operations in areas outside of England. In these first chapters we move from Hong Kong to London where Smiley is picking up the pieces, to Tuscany where Jerry Westerby - reporter cum spy is languishing. A multitude of characters are introduced and it takes a while of reading before some coherence and understanding takes place. Once it does however, the book becomes a riveting read, Le Carré deftly balancing the on-the-scene actions of Jerry (mostly) as he tracks down the players involved in the smuggling into Hong Kong - read the west - from communist mainland China of the brother of a highly influential and wealthy Hong Kong based businessman. Interwoven with this is a woman just screaming out to be rescued by Jerry, a pilot of dubious character as are all the SE Asian based characters - hence Jerry as the honourable one, numerous other bit players who flit in and out. Plus of course Smiley, Guillam, the other Circus experts, the Americans - the Cousins with their own investment in the situation, the British bureaucracy exercising its own desire for control and needing to appease the Cousins. It is complicated, at times tedious - especially the scenes where Smiley and co gather to figure out what to do next. 

The Hong Kong/Cambodia/Laos action however is fantastic. I was always relieved when the plot moved out of dreary office rooms and secret chambers where men (and one woman) in suits discussed what to do next. Le Carré must have spent time in these regions to depict so well the climate, the grubbiness, the hectic insanity and sleaze of the cities of Hong Kong and Bangkok, the unflappability of the SE Asian people versus the untidiness, loudness, boorishness of the expat mostly British population trying to survive in the sweltering and humid climate. Jerry makes a great spy, a man of great resourcefulness, cunning and flying by the seat of his pants. 

It is well worth a read, but do be prepared to spend time rather than racing through. I wonder if a cast of characters at the beginning would have helped - there are a lot of people in this book.