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A review by quaerentia
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life by John le Carré
4.0
Eyebrows were clearly raised when le Carré announced the publication of this book. Was this a rebuff to Adam Sisman's 2015 authorised biography? That had been enjoyable, though in some ways reflected the difficulties of getting to the heart of an individual who has always preferred the shadows to the limelight. Its second half seemed more concerned with the researches for, and responses to, his post-Cold War novels, than with getting to know the man better. Which is probably the best he could hope for.
A very recent article by Sisman suggests that they are on reasonably good terms now - and indeed le Carré sent a signed copy of the Pigeon Tunnel to him. So it's not a rebuff, nor necessarily a correction of wrongs.
So then, what is it?
For one thing, it is not a plugging of Sisman's inevitable gaps. There is very little in here that is not already known - either through his few interviews or through the biography. This is definitely not an autobiography.
Instead, we encounter le Carré the brilliant and witty raconteur, the master of the thumbnail sketch with a perfectly tuned ear for accents and peculiar turns of phrase. We get tiny glimpses of his creative process (such as the catalysts for his creations of Alec Leamas, or Jerry Westerby, and Tessa Quayle). There are hilariously bizarre moments from his research trips (as with Yasser Arafat) or encounters (as when Margaret Thatcher introduced him to totally nonplussed Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers). He has a nicely self-deprecating tone, and it seems that for his love of all things Germanic and scathing descriptions of the British class-system, he still contends with the excruciations of being English in socially embarrassing situations (as when he thought he was giving a signed copy of one of his books to the Italian President).
This makes for a very entertaining read - vintage le Carré, in bite-sized chunks (without the impenetrable plots). To that end, it felt a little like The Secret Pilgrim (the Smiley short-story collection on his retirement). He is quite open about the problems that a story-teller will have with memory - how can he ever be sure that his tales haven't grown whiskers with time and retelling?
So this is a book to enjoy greatly - but don't imagine it will make its author any less impenetrable than his plots
A very recent article by Sisman suggests that they are on reasonably good terms now - and indeed le Carré sent a signed copy of the Pigeon Tunnel to him. So it's not a rebuff, nor necessarily a correction of wrongs.
So then, what is it?
For one thing, it is not a plugging of Sisman's inevitable gaps. There is very little in here that is not already known - either through his few interviews or through the biography. This is definitely not an autobiography.
Instead, we encounter le Carré the brilliant and witty raconteur, the master of the thumbnail sketch with a perfectly tuned ear for accents and peculiar turns of phrase. We get tiny glimpses of his creative process (such as the catalysts for his creations of Alec Leamas, or Jerry Westerby, and Tessa Quayle). There are hilariously bizarre moments from his research trips (as with Yasser Arafat) or encounters (as when Margaret Thatcher introduced him to totally nonplussed Dutch Prime Minister Ruud Lubbers). He has a nicely self-deprecating tone, and it seems that for his love of all things Germanic and scathing descriptions of the British class-system, he still contends with the excruciations of being English in socially embarrassing situations (as when he thought he was giving a signed copy of one of his books to the Italian President).
This makes for a very entertaining read - vintage le Carré, in bite-sized chunks (without the impenetrable plots). To that end, it felt a little like The Secret Pilgrim (the Smiley short-story collection on his retirement). He is quite open about the problems that a story-teller will have with memory - how can he ever be sure that his tales haven't grown whiskers with time and retelling?
So this is a book to enjoy greatly - but don't imagine it will make its author any less impenetrable than his plots