What I Am Reading: "A Legacy of Spies" by John le Carré

This was another good read that kept me up late. It is basically a direct expansion of The Spy Who Came In from the Cold, creating additional backstory for that book and a sequel for minor character (but major character in other le Carré works) Peter Guillam.

The plot has an elderly Guillam summoned to London from his family farm in Brittany to answer questions about Operation Windfall, as depicted in Cold. He goes about this by retrieving documents, under the eyes of the new, sterile, suspicious Circus (as le Carré refers to MI6) from the operation's safe house, which has been frozen in time for the past half-century. To my mind, Guillam's reliving of the case is made up of three segments. The first is pure world-building, as it expands information on preparation for the operation and on a woman who was involved in the original iteration of Operation Windfall: an East German defector married to an abusive Stasi officer who sneaks out pictures of his work logs. This woman, described by her doctor as mentally ill, is a tragic, beautiful figure; and when it comes time to account for her absence from Cold (the second segment), her story connects to that plot via a gut punch of a plot twist that ties her death to the recruitment of the asset who is the focal point of Cold. The third segment of the book involves Guillam's reaction to this information in the present day, as he seeks to avoid the cause of this stirring up of the past: the children of several of the victims from the original book, who are seeking answers in a public forum; and also seeks to avoid any cooperation with the new masters of the Circus.

Le Carré's works could use one of those charts showing his recurring characters and which books they are in. This book does have a minor role for George Smiley, appearing in the reports that fill in the story; and also appearing in the final pages in person, to soothe Guillam's conscience (and help to prove that he was not involved in the planning of the most cynical manipulation of the operation). In an explanation that le Carré said that he wrote with contemporary Britain in mind, Smiley says that he viewed the moral transgressions that he organized and participated in as being for the benefit of Europeans, as Britain was part of a larger Europe (this was interesting but a touch underwhelming, because of an over-selling of the book’s tie-in to the modern scene).

It is impressive that le Carré was able to fit this entire second story around the frame of his older work. A very quick re-skim reminded me that there were events from Cold's backstory that Legacy did not include, but overall a lot of elements fell right into place as I read them back-to-back. He also ties it slightly to Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, as the primary plot point of that novel, a mole in the Circus, is essentially retconned into the backstory of Cold. This is necessary because Tinker Tailor was written after Cold, and Cold didn't incorporate the whole Kim Philby/Cambridge Five aspect inspiring Tinker Tailor, even though it was being revealed at roughly the same time. In any event, le Carré runs his expanded universe better than some franchises I can name.