Hacker News Books

40,000 HackerNews book recommendations identified using NLP and deep learning

Scroll down for comments...

All TimePast 6 Months
Prev Page 2/7 Next
Sorted by relevance

ApplejinxonDec 14, 2020

"A Perfect Spy" is a devastating, powerful book. I'm happy Le Carre survived his life better than Magnus Pym did. "A Perfect Spy" is truly a work of art.

GatskyonNov 16, 2019

The writer calls 'A Perfect Spy' a masterpiece and rightly so. I highly recommend it. The audio version by Michael Jayston is brilliant. Years after reading it, scenes from the book regularly surface from the backwash of my daydreams.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/best-le-c...

jrumbutonDec 14, 2020

He wrote a lot about this in (imo his best novel) A Perfect Spy and his memoir The Pidgeon Tunnel

GatskyonMar 19, 2021

Also a favourite.
"A Perfect Spy" is a masterpiece.

rupellohnonSep 5, 2016

My favorite le Carré book, 'A Perfect Spy', is largely based on his unconventional early life. I'm looking forward to reading his memoir.

bernardomonDec 14, 2020

A Perfect Spy is a phenomenal novel. I'm so sad I'll never walk into a bookstore and see a new Le Carre again.

buckminsteronDec 14, 2019

You may well know this but John le Carre's father was a big time con man. The somewhat autobiographical novel "A Perfect Spy" goes into his experiences and is an excellent read.

jrumbutonDec 14, 2020

I had tried watching the recent movie adaptation of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and was so put off that I had really low expectations when I happened into a copy of A Perfect Spy.

I was blown away by reading APS, I think it's really a masterpiece and would recommend it to anyone who has ever had a family, a job, or a secret.

I've since read most of the rest of his work and while APS is the best, the Smiley series was also very good and I felt genuinely moved by the conclusion of Smiley's People. You don't really have to read the rest in order but read Smiley's People last.

akamakaonDec 14, 2020

As a teenager, I picked out a copy of The Little Drummer Girl from a used book store quite by chance. I expected a simple spy action story, but what I read was a deep and anguishing examination of the personal impact of geopolitics on a someone’s identity.

If you’re new to Le Carré and want to tip your toe in, I’d recommend watching The Night Manager mini-series.

For someone who already enjoys Le Carré, it would be a shame to overlook A Perfect Spy, which is his most autobiographical and soul-wrenching work. Both the book and 1987 mini-series are excellent.

Built withby tracyhenry

.

Follow me on