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A review by thisisstephenbetts
A Small Town in Germany by John le Carré
4.0
Going back and swooping up the le Carrés that I've chronologically missed. This one (with The Naïve And Sentimental Lover) falls between The Looking Glass War and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Set in the contrived, and now barely memorable, West German capital of Bonn, the plot explores the post World War II landscape of Western Europe. It barely touches on the USSR and its Eastern European allies, but is much more interested in what should be more friendly relations - both in allied countries, and also between departments of the same country.
One of the UK's low-ranking diplomats in Bonn has gone missing, and a hard-bitten spy, Alan Turner, is sent from London to investigate. The permanent staff in Bonn seem to be more keen to avoid a scandal than discover what happened, infuriating Turner, and allowing le Carré to excavate some of the class divisions that run through so many of his books.
This feels to me something of a stepping stone toward Tinker Tailor - the plot - and its structure - is becoming more complicated than in the earlier books, and the characters more morally nuanced. Additionally there's a significant amount of internal monologue which I don't remember seeing in other le Carrés. For me, while not unsuccessful, it did detract a little from the cleanliness, the suave efficiency of le Carré's prose.
One of the UK's low-ranking diplomats in Bonn has gone missing, and a hard-bitten spy, Alan Turner, is sent from London to investigate. The permanent staff in Bonn seem to be more keen to avoid a scandal than discover what happened, infuriating Turner, and allowing le Carré to excavate some of the class divisions that run through so many of his books.
This feels to me something of a stepping stone toward Tinker Tailor - the plot - and its structure - is becoming more complicated than in the earlier books, and the characters more morally nuanced. Additionally there's a significant amount of internal monologue which I don't remember seeing in other le Carrés. For me, while not unsuccessful, it did detract a little from the cleanliness, the suave efficiency of le Carré's prose.