Reviews

• The Honorable コンディション

  コンディションも素晴らしかったです。

• 赤いモグラの正体は？

  本作を読む場合には東西冷戦時代に中ソ対立が一触即発の状態にまで高まり、互いに情報合戦にしのぎを削っていたことを念頭に置く必要があります。また、シリーズの他の作品と異なるのは、話の主な展開がヨーロッパではなくアジアであることです。 前作で、英国情報部（サーカス）は部内に潜むソビエト側スパイ（もぐら）により大打撃を受けました。内閣からの秘密の依頼により、引退したGeorge Smileyが部外から綿密な調査を行い、最終的にもぐらの正体を暴くことに成功しました。しかし、サーカスの信用はがた落ちになりました。今回、この廃墟と化したサーカスを立て直すべくSmileyが運営責任者（コントロール）として乗り込んできます。彼は冷酷とも言える断固たる姿勢で体制を一新し、側近となる高級スタッフを新しく選任します。その中には、中国専門家のDoc di Salisや前作でも登場した超人的頭脳を有する女性Connie Sachsが含まれ、活躍します。 Smiley達の部内資料の精査や聴き取りにより、香港在住の謎の中国人富豪Drake Koへの不審な金の流れが明らかになります。すなわち、ソビエト情報部（モスクワセンター）の運営責任者でSmileyの仇敵であるKarlaから、複雑な経路を経て定期的に大金がKoの口座に振り込まれ、使われずに積立られていることが付きとめられます。 Smileyの指令により現地でKoの正体に迫るのは、諜報員のJerry Westerbyです。彼は英国貴族の子弟で、そのために「honourable schoolboy（スクールボーイ閣下）」と冷やかされる直情径行の青年です。Koの愛人の英国女性Lizzy、Lizzyが激しい愛を抱く元恋人のパイロット（Tiny Ricardo）、それにWesterbyのLizzyに対する複雑な思いなどがからまり、話が展開して行きます。 最終的に、中国共産党の中枢部にKarlaの操るもぐらが存在することが明らかになります。さて、宿敵Karlaに打撃を与えるために、Smileyはこのもぐらを一体どのようにするつもりなのでしょうか？また、もぐらとKoの関係は？なお、最終場面で悲劇が待っています。 長すぎるという批判の多い作品で、私もそのように感じます。しかし、Westerbyの取りつかれた想いや肉親に対するKoの偏愛（彼の悲しい生い立ちが背景にある）など、冷徹な諜報の世界と狂おしい情念の世界が並行して描かれ、最後まで読ませます。そして、前作と本作はシリーズ第三作の「Smiley's People」の最終章の伏線となっています。

• superb wordsmith, acute observer of people and craft.

  A mawkish ending should not deter anyone from reading this insightful and picaresque romp through Hong Kong, Chelsea and Indochina. Boys Own Annual stuff written by the dux of espionage novels.

• Masterfully written

  Reread this le Carré masterpiece after a 10 year pause, and loved it all the more. It's masterfully written! All of George Smiley's "Circus" usual suspects are there, some, real wolves, some, much too meek, with two standouts : marvellous, huge, arthritic, "Moscow Watcher" Connie Sachs, and fidgety, temperamental Chiu Chow specialist Doc di Salis. Jerry Westerby, the book's honorary schoolboy (You'll have to read the novel to find out why he's called that), is a fascinating character but I would have liked still more character description, to justify his going out on a limb. He's is in love head over heels, that is absolutely clear, but he's also a brilliant person. Why, then, does he allow himself such a breach of protocol? Despite this flaw, the book still resonates. Deeply. Le Carré has a way of circumscribing the entire world, and fitting it neatly in his closed, chummy, stuffy spy universe. I definitely could/will read this book again, in a few years!

• Intricate, passionate, and only very slightly self-indulgent

  If you loved Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and want to know what happens next, this is what happens. The Circus, rocked by the Bill Haydon betrayal, is placed in the hands of George Smiley, who brings back in Peter Guillam, Connie Sachs and old faithful the newspaper stringer Jerry Westerby, the 'Honourable Schoolboy' of the title. But the Circus charter and budget are dramatically curtailed, and there is a good chance that the Circus will not survive at all. Circus centres across the world are closed down, including the famous Hong Kong residence. British Secret Intelligence seems blind, and this is exactly the way Carla wanted it. With a bare minimum of resources, Smiley starts to track Carla's 'handwriting', discovering a potential mole of the Bill Haydon type embedded in the Chinese communist hierarchy. With Westerby despatched to Hong Kong as the legman, Smiley begins a complex process of triangulating the elusive Nelson Ko, which eventually results in a magnificent sting which... well, enough of the spoilers. It doesn't end the way you expect it to. This is by far the most expansive of the Smiley books, with Westerby traipsing through war torn South East Asia, escaping death often by no more than a whisker. Back in London, we see Smiley and his team in their element, doing all the things which we most wish they would be allowed to do, and leaving the Americans in the dust as they do it. My only criticism of this book is that it tends a little towards self-indulgence, with old chums back running the Circus like what they should, with enough camaraderie and table-tennis to give the Famous Five a run for their money. However, it's a minor point, and most readers will lap it up, at least on the first time through. It's what Smiley deserves, after all. This is immensely exciting, and moves towards the James Bond territory for once. It is an excellent counter point to the dangerous games of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and the austere silences of Smiley's People .

• One of his best

  An excellent novel with the author displaying his talents and his delightful cast of characters well as the fiendishly complicated plot.

• decepção

  Decepcionante, acaba em "rabo de peixe", sem continuidade...

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