THE CRITICS | CRITIC AT LARGE The spy master’s style John le Carré’s fiction could be simultaneously old-fashioned and thoroughly modern, but what made it Le Carré-esque? By William Boyd

he sudden and unexpected death of ideas of class and class-consciousness lurk The omniscient narrator was the staple John Le Carré last month inevitably beneath the surface of many of Le Carré’s of the great 19th-century British novelists Tprompts an evaluation of the both the novels – indeed, apart from espionage, class – Austen, Dickens, Trollope, Thackeray – work and the man. There are more than two and its ramifications might be cited as an- where the authorial presence in the novel, dozen novels, the most recent of which, other defining feature of his work. the guiding hand and decision-maker, was Agent Running in the Field, was published Le Carré’s obsession with the subject can overtly revealed. The reader was even oc- in 2019, days before the author’s 88th birth- be explained by his own unusual upbring- casionally addressed directly – the “Dear day. Given that his first novel, Call for the ing, which he candidly documented in his Reader” trope – or the author broke away Dead, was published in 1961, his longevity memoir The Pigeon Tunnel. He wrote there from the novel to add some personal, politi- and productivity as a novelist – close to 60 that, “Englishmen… are branded on the cal or social observation: the “apostrophe”, years – is both remarkable and astonishing. tongue” and he documents his own class as it’s known. It is a far rarer narrative form Therefore it is perhaps an opportune mo- transformation and progression through today, however, and because of its heritage ment to analyse just what it is about his style his privileged education at private school it can, when chosen, give an unwitting old- that makes the prose so “Le Carré-esque”. (Sherborne) and Oxford University. This fashioned tone to the prose. What is it about the way this writer writes education allowed him to “jump” classes, Le Carré would reject the advice given by that is sui generis? This analysis will have becoming educated middle-class and leav- those two great originators of the modern nothing to do with the seriousness of the ing his lower-class father – a jailed felon, novel, Gustave Flaubert and James Joyce, themes that Le Carré tackles in his novels, philanderer and a bankrupt as well as a that the novelist should remain “invisible, or his near single-handed rebooting of the sometime millionaire – marooned on the refined out of existence” (Joyce), or, “like spy genre, or his position as one of our most other side of the class barrier, unable to God in the universe, present everywhere significant and highly regarded contempo- join his son. On another more profound but visible nowhere” (Flaubert). Le Carré, rary novelists. It is, rather, an attempt to pin and non-autobiographical level, Le Carré by contrast, is visible on almost every page. down what we might call his particular tone understands that almost everything about Both and of voice; an endeavour to answer the ques- the English, and therefore the British, has a deploy omniscient narra- tion: is there a Le Carré mode of expression class element attached to it and may be ana- tors. Interestingly, omniscience is virtually that is uniquely his? In trying to answer this lysed through a class-lens. It can be a very Le Carré’s default form of narrative method question I propose to look at two novels revealing picture. and he will even resort to Dickensian apos- separated by three and a half decades. The trophising, from time to time. Without Honourable Schoolboy (1977) and A Deli- Omniscience doubt, the subliminal effect of hearing the cate Truth (2013), both classic novels of es- authorial voice in a Le Carré novel is perhaps pionage, one set during the Cold War and In analysing any novel – in stripping it down the most signal feature of his style. For ex- one altogether more contemporary, to see to reveal its working parts – the first ques- ample, this is how A Delicate Truth begins: if we can discern any common factors and tion to ask yourself is: what is the point of On the second floor of a characterless repeated traits. view? It’s usually instantly revealed by the hotel in the British crown Colony of There are other similarities in that both choice of pronoun – first person singular or Gibraltar, a lithe, agile man in his late novels feature protagonists that might be third. But point of view can be more subtle. fifties restlessly paced his bedroom… termed “outsiders”, and both, while they It can shift from first to third (and occasion- Certainly it would not have occurred to elaborate their complex narratives of espio- ally second) and back again. It can be objec- many people, even in their most fanciful

nage, examine ideas of Englishness. English tive and restricted. Or it can be omniscient. dreams, that he was a middle-ranking t

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XXXXX Caption single line in here

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British civil servant… dispatched on a This is a genuine Le Carré device – almost Action top-secret mission of acute sensitivity. his trademark. The immediate consequence The opening of this 21st-century novel of this is that readers feel a bit stupid; they There’s usually very little action in a could have been written in the 19th. The urge themselves to pay more attention; Le Carré novel. The narrative is cerebral, omniscient narrator informs the reader of to read more closely – but there’s nothing intellectual. People in rooms, meeting, the key fact on page one: the “top-secret they can do. In fact Le Carré, if he is to play talking, thinking. Conflicts that are all mission of acute sensitivity”. It is a confi- by the strict rules of omniscient narration, subtext, implicit. In The Honourable dent, almost brazen, rupturing of the mod- shouldn’t be indulging in this. He could Schoolboy, however, there is a splendid ern literary injunction to “show, not tell”. easily tell us what the significance of Craw’s action sequence in Cambodia that almost John Le Carré is telling us this story, not report is, but in this instance he chooses not hints at another Le Carré. Jerry Westerby – showing it, and he has all the information. to. This pointed withholding is an illicit the “Schoolboy” of the title – gets caught in And here lies another narrative problem, trick, in literary terms, but very, very effec- a firefight: especially in an espionage novel. If you tive in a novel of espionage. “God” in this Ahead of them, Jerry could hear the choose the omniscient form, if you com- instance is the novelist, and Le Carré has sound of automatic fire, M16s and AK47s ment directly to the reader, then the act of just cut the lines of communication. mixed. A jeep raced at them out of the deliberately withholding information be- trees, and at the last second veered, comes a form of literary subterfuge, at best; Dialogue and monologue banging and tripping over the ruts. At malpractice, at worst. In theory, you can- the same moment the sunshine went not have your cake and eat it when you use On the whole Le Carré writes exceptionally out. Till now they had accepted it as their omniscience – particularly in a genre like good dialogue. His ear is acute, especially right, a liquid, vivid light washed by the the spy novel where obfuscation, baffle- for the nuances and verbal mannerisms of rainstorms. This was March and… this ment and mystery are key to the success of the English middle- and upper-classes. He was Cambodia, where war, like cricket, was played in decent weather. But now the novel. But Le Carré does have his cake gets their phraseology, their clipped in- black clouds collected, the trees closed and eats it all the time. He will tell you the nuendos, absolutely perfectly. An example round them like winter and the wooden facts he wants you to know and then he from A Delicate Truth: houses pulled into the dark. will deliberately withhold information. A “There’s a creep around called Crispin,” significant part of the famous complexity Matti murmurs under the clamour. The combination of the terseness and of Le Carré’s fiction comes from the adroit “Ever heard of him?” “No.” “Well, I the precision of the word choice – “banging manipulation of these double standards. haven’t either, so I’ll thank you to and tripping”, “a liquid, vivid light washed One instance will have to suffice. In remember that. Crispin. Dodgy by the rainstorms” – makes one wish there The Honourable Schoolboy there is a clas- bastard. Avoid.” “Any reason given?” more action sequences in the novels. Clear- sic example of this withholding technique. “Not specific.” ly, Le Carré could write them very well. Half way through this long novel (by far Le Carré’s longest) receives a But he then undermines this marvellous Whimsy report from an agent named Craw about a facility in over-relying on monologue to key target’s movements in and out of main- convey information and exposition. He has Elsewhere, I have described whimsy as land China. This report gives Smiley “a rare characters speak for pages and pages – with the “English disease”. It is often present in attempts at comedy: issues of sentimen- tality, smugness, over-elaboration – go- Le Carré’s ear is acute, especially for ing for the easy, knowing laugh – define it. Le Carré has a tendency to lapse into it, or the nuances and mannerisms of the something close to it, from time to time, and it can colour his prose as much as com- English middle- and upper-classes plex allusiveness does. In Le Carré’s case this form of humour edges into what I would call “pantomime”, moment of pleasure”. Clearly, Smiley has the odd interpolation from listeners. In the where the mood becomes over-the-top, spotted a solution to a vital mystery. middle of The Honourable Schoolboy there fantastical and unlikely, often indicated by is a 20-page sequence of monologue with over-writing. In Schoolboy, Jerry Westerby “But don’t you see?” [Smiley] protested to Guillam… “Don’t you understand, interjections – between the characters Di and his mother are going through some Peter?” – shoving Craw’s dates under his Salis, Hibbert and Connie Sachs – that could family papers late one night and find a copy nose… “Oh, you are a dunce.” have been achieved by a few paragraphs of of his late father’s will. reported speech. It’s heavy going. Nobody “I’m nothing of the kind,” Guillam “Bit of a turn-up that one,” Jerry retorted. “I just don’t happen to have a really converses in this way. In the world muttered uncomfortably, when it was direct line to God, that’s all.” of American TV soap-operas, overt narra- too late to re-bury the envelope in the Here is the situation. Le Carré, the novel- tive exposition in monologue and dialogue mountain [of documents]. “Reckon we ist, knows the significance of Craw’s report is known as “laying pipe”. Le Carré uses could bung it down the old what-not, – obviously. So does George Smiley, a char- monologue to “lay pipe” time and again, don’t you, sport?” acter in the novel. But Peter Guillam, anoth- seemingly reluctant to turn to the handy Her boot-button eyes glowed furiously. er character, doesn’t know. And, of course, ready-made device of reported speech. It is neither does the reader. This feeling of not almost as if he’s become enamoured of the “Aloud,” she ordered, in a booming wholly understanding what’s going on, of speaking voices of his characters and is hap- theatrical voice… missing the point, is something Le Carré fi- py to give them too much free rein, let them Boot-button eyes glow furiously. Le Car-

nesses regularly, with great skill. rabbit on for pages. ré’s mimicking of Jerry’s dated clubman’s XXXXX

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everyone around you was flogging arms, you were peddling raw intelligence: straight from the shelf, direct to buyer. No stops between. Unspun, untested, unpasteurised and above all untouched by bureaucratic hands…”

There are nine italicised words in that paragraph. It’s not untypical of the way Le Carré uses emphasis.

3 Rhetorical questions. Le Carré will often provide a list, a volley of unanswered ques- tions. This is also part of his skilful obfus- cation technique. The reader is powerless to provide answers as the questions ac- cumulate and feels very much in the dark, suffering from helpless ignorance. But it is done too frequently simply to achieve that discomfort. It is almost as if Le Carré is im- provising the narrative, himself, waiting for events to unfold, for answers to be revealed. Which of course he isn’t. For example, from A Delicate Truth: Caption to in here But why had Kit’s otherwise fairly well-regulated instincts gone into dialogue adds to the pantomime effect. The save it from cliché. This is not so much anarchic, totally irrational denial? tone becomes arch, a bit bogus. But the same reach-me-down Dickens as JB Priestley. It’s And why did the name Jeb, now that tone is present in A Delicate Truth: in passages like this that Le Carré’s normally he consented to acknowledge it, strike bright eye dims. him as the most outrageous, the most “Happy as a sandboy, Elliot. Couldn’t be irresponsible breach of the Official happier. Totally out of my element, Secrets Act that had ever crossed whole thing like a dream, but with you Tics his desk? all the way.” But then, noticing that Elliot looks a bit put out and fearing that All writers have their foibles, devices and And this from Schoolboy: the briefing he is about to receive will mannerisms, favourite words, tricks of the There remains the mystery of the kick off on a bad note, he goes for a bit of trade. Here are some of Le Carré’s. telephone transcripts. Did Jerry ring bonding. Lizzie from the Constellation or not? “So where does a highly qualified chap 1 He tries not to use “he said”, “she said” And if he did ring her, did he mean to like you fit into the scheme of things, if I all the time as if reluctant to employ some- talk to her, or only to listen to her voice? may ask without being intrusive, Elliot?” thing so prosaic. In the example above we And if he intended to talk to her, then can see a “muttered uncomfortably” and what did he propose to say? Or was the It may be argued that this is the way the a “she ordered”. Here are examples taken very act of making the phone call… in English mandarin class speak and think, at random from both novels: “asks socia- itself sufficient catharsis to hold him but the tone is widespread in Le Carré’s bly”, “they announce”, “he continued af- back from the reality? work. This Pall Mall clubman’s patois – a fably”, “Guillam cried”, “he remarked”, These questions are all posed by the om- characteristic of his dialogue – also appears “she hissed”, “cried involuntarily”, “she niscient narrator. To which, once again, in the mise en scène. There is a familiar, whispered”, “Lacon pursued”. And so on. only he has the answers. A paradox. conversational aspect to the prose in these People bawl, murmur, repeat, growl, in- passages that makes them occasionally tone, mutter, retort, demand, yell, drawl, 4 Staccato. Le Carré will often leave out verge on cliché, with characters served up insist and protest as if there is some in- words in a sentence. Sometimes this is from central casting. Stubbs, in Schoolboy, junction against the efficient verb “to say”. for suspense reasons – the pace quickens. is representative: Sometimes it is a useful narrative short- 2 Use of italics for emphasis in dialogue. The hand. Here are examples from one page of Pressmen, like other travelling people, make the same mess everywhere and employment of this device has increased A Delicate Truth: Stubbs, as the group’s managing considerably over time based on the evi- “Preparatory honking of ministerial director, was no exception. His desk was dence of these two novels. It’s a reflection of throat.” littered with tea-stained proofs and Le Carré’s excellent ear, of course; his urge “Squeak of leather as he lowers himself ink-stained cups and the remains of a to reproduce the cadences of an individual into his executive throne.” ham sandwich that had died of old age… voice. But it is so current in A Delicate Truth “Footsteps approaching, faint but getting Stubbs made all the weary jokes about as to become intrusive. For example: louder. Party the first is arriving.” editors come true. He was a resentful “The footsteps approaching the ante- “I’ll tell you what you did,” you evil man with heavy grey jowls and heavy room. One pair only. Hard soles. Leisured, eyelids that looked as if they had been man,” – as if Toby himself is Crispin, nothing stealthy.” rubbed with soot. now – “you set up your own spy shop. Right there inside the ministry. While This device – like the italics – seems to be

Advertising a portrait as a cliché doesn’t increasing in late Le Carré. t

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ll these elements contribute to the THE NS POEM Le Carré style: that vivid fingerprint, Athat tone of voice that so characterises his novels. And it is very much a “voice” be- Revolution cause of the favoured technique of omnisci- Ben Okri ent narration. In a Le Carré novel, you are al- most always aware of the author’s voice – or they live as if everything that of his chosen narrator – in your ear. But is settled in the world. there are larger issues other than technical but nothing is settled. ones that contribute to the Le Carré-esque. There is a worldly cynicism about the way not our dreams, nor our fears, nations and their security apparatus work. nor the boundary between things. The focus on betrayal, while a preoccupa- the land isn’t settled, nor the realm of sleep. tion of the espionage novel genre, is particu- nor the deep mines where our fathers weep. larly intense in Le Carré’s work, probably because he himself was in the British secret nor the deep wells where service at the time of the devastating revela- mothers call out our names. tions of Kim Philby’s role as a Soviet master- those walls of steel never kept out spy. Philby’s long shadow darkens Le Carré’s the eyes of hunger that wander the world greatest novels. Furthermore there is an un- derlying theme that human emotion (usu- like thunder. those stony eyes that devour ally love) is often the factor – the flaw in the the poor with a cold gaze, spy – that brings about tragedy or fatality. those tower blocks, those men who live This is true of The Spy Who Came in from on dust and sleep on stones, the Cold and The Honourable Schoolboy. The human factor is often the immovable span- those mothers with their teeth ner in the works of the intelligence machine. falling out from mercury in their food, These great themes in the Le Carré canon those children whose lungs will elevate the novels. not carry them through life Henry James described the novel as a “loose, baggy monster”. By this he meant what do they know of boundaries, that the form was unbelievably generous: it what do they know of the gods contained multitudes and could accommo- of the street, the gods of hunger. date just about any variety of novel, and still function as the best means we have – the best art-form – for trying to understand the nothing is settled. not our place human condition. in the world nor our place among the dead. Le Carré is a particularly interesting ex- the rich have not locked up all the dreams ample of this generosity. He can be defined or the power that grows in rage. as a strange mixture of oppositions. He’s at once old-fashioned and highly sophisticat- generations live on dust and debris ed. He is an accomplished writer of eloquent and are pale as ghosts but the god prose who flouts the basic rules of narrative of hunger powers their bodies with the secret method. He is a hugely successful novelist who sometimes writes as if he is unaware of electricity that drives galaxies. how a novel’s moving parts intersect. He is a on the city’s edge they swell and grow. masterful plotter who also uses a conscious, their only education is the text of truth feigned ignorance of his own plots in order which the world delivers without humour. to deliberately baffle and confuse the reader. The novels are – in purely literary terms – eccentric. Slightly unwieldy 19th-century nothing is settled. those who think they will narrative methods conjoin with a modern, inherit the earth because they’ve mortgaged shrewd and complicated intellectual under- the sun will find on the eve of their usurpation standing of how the world and its denizens work. Paradoxically, this unique, Le Carré that the grim horsemen are on the horizon. eccentricity, this crucial tension between lit- the earth shifts and howls. the sands have erary method and world-view, may explain turned into people. the graves speak something of the secret of his novels’ real lucid prophecies. there’s nothing value – and what makes them memorable. Now that the Le Carré canon has reached its to inherit, because nothing is settled, end this factor may be the vital contribution except the thunder after sleep. to the great novels’ enduring renown. William’s Boyd’s most recent novel is Ben Okri is a Nigerian poet and novelist. His latest book of

“Trio” (Viking) poems, A Fire In My Head, is published by Head of Zeus. XXXXX

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