A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A Perfect Spy by John le Carré is a magnificent novel. I read it slowly, trying to give it full attention and yet I do not feel I have fully understood it and grasped all aspects of its greatness. I definitely need a re-read, thus in lieu of an actual review, here are some fragmentary impressions.

A Perfect Spy, which - as we can figure out from the biography of the author - has autobiographical components, can be read in so many different ways: an excellent spy novel, an outstanding coming-of-age story and also a fascinating panorama of the times during the Cold War era of the 1950s to 1980s. The central character is Magnus Pym, a relatively high-level official of British Intelligence, who is ruminating about his life. The character of his father, Rick Pym, may well be the most fascinating literary character I have ever encountered. I feel that know the man, even though he is fictitious. He's an epitome of a con man, shown so vividly that one is tempted to reach for Wikipedia to read his biography. And who is Magnus Pym himself?

Here we touch the main - in my view - motif of the novel, already alluded to in a quote from an early part of the book:

"Magnus keeps everything inside something. Everything must wear a disguise in order to be real."

Later, about a fifth into the novel:

"Like Rick he was learning to live on several planes at once. The art of it was to forget everything except the ground you stood on and the face you spoke from at the moment."

And a little later:

"What version of himself Pym supplied that day, and had to live with for the coming months, I do not remember, [...]"

One is tempted to ask: will anything be left of Magnus Pym if all disguises are removed?

Other than the question of one's identity, there is so much more in the novel! The brilliantly drawn characters of Magnus's mentor, Jack Brotherhood, Magnus wife, Mary, and Lippsie, tremendously important in Magnus' childhood. There's the enigmatic and multifaceted character of Axel, Magnus' other mentor, friend, and much more.

I am planning to rewrite this stub of a review when I re-read the novel.

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