# John LeCarre’s Our Game-does it get better? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** books-writing-myths\ **Created:** [October 25, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273 "2025-10-25T13:05:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/1 "2025-10-25T13:05:56Z")
I picked it up at a sale and decided to try it, since I’ve certainly heard his name before and wanted to see if he matches up to the hype. But so far it’s endless talk about his friend Larry and how Larry was always drinking or charming or something. Maybe it’s just because I’m not English? I don’t expect relentless action like Bond, but it’s just so soft and boring. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/2 "2025-10-25T14:45:03Z")
I don’t know that one, but LeCarre has written some excellent books - which have been adapted for TV and film. I thoroughly recommend this BBC adapatation: ([Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (TV series) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinker_Tailor_Soldier_Spy_(TV_series))) Sir Alec Guiness was truly authentic in the leading role (supported by many fine British actors.) ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/3 "2025-10-25T16:03:40Z")
It’s been decades since I read it, but I remember being unenthralled. LeCarre was my favorite writer for a time, but that was founded on the “Smiley vs Karla trilogy” (Wikipedia’s term): _Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy_, _Honorable Schoolbo_y, _Smiley’s People_. The immediate follow-up to those, _The Little Drummer Girl,_ was strong but even more morally ambiguous. The other 5 or 6 I read were all a bit disappointing: too much theme, plot, or character rather than a satisfying balance. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/4 "2025-10-25T16:34:02Z")
I’ve read two completely (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor…) and one partially (The Honourable Schoolboy). I stopped because I had the same criticism as you, very slow pacing and very subtle clues. Just not exciting. I gather that’s his style and you just wouldn’t be a fan. That said, most of his adaptations are pretty good, although still mostly slow compared to other spy movies. Also, I think The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is excellent and would recommend it even with the caveats about the author. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/5 "2025-10-25T17:12:00Z")
I’ve only read one, _A Most Wanted Man_, and it was a gut punch. I loved it. I would say try one of the more famous ones before you rule him out completely. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/6 "2025-10-25T17:47:57Z")
I watched the Ipcress File and thought it was Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy but now I realize I was wrong. I’m willing to give him another shot. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/7 "2025-10-25T20:27:17Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > I’ve read two completely (The Spy Who Came in From the Cold and Tinker, Tailor…) and one partially (The Honourable Schoolboy). I stopped because I had the same criticism as you, very slow pacing and very subtle clues. Just not exciting. You thought _The Honorable Schoolboy_ had slow pacing and subtle clues? I found that it told its story at a breakneck pace with a kind of gonzo intensity that is atypical for le Carré; at some points it almost feels like it is imitating the style of Tom Wolfe or Terry Southern. The BBC had planned to adapt it in between _Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy_ and _Smiley’s People_ but the cost of location filming and the difficulty of adapting it (particularly because George Smiley basically only appears in a couple of cameos in the novel) as a coherent story let to it being abandoned. I don’t believe I’ve read _Our Game_ but and I did find _A Perfect Spy_ was kind of slow, but of his post-Cold War/pre-9/11 novels _The Constant Gardener_, _The Night Manager_, and the Graham Greene homage _The Tailor of Panama_ are all great (and have excellent adaptations to film or mini-series). I haven’t actually read _The Russia House_ but the film was great. I haven’t read much of his post-9/11 oeuvre but I did try to read _Absolute Friends_ but it didn’t grab me and I can’t recall if I finished or not, and _A Legacy of Spies_ felt like kind of a ‘bottle episode’ of his previous Smiley stories. I do feel like we are in a particular era that could really benefit from David Cornwell’s cynical take on the confluence of government, military, and corporate interests, and how the stories we get in the news are based upon highly massaged ‘facts’ supporting an official narrative at odds with the reality of what is actually happening on the ground. le Carré was never much of a technologist, and for the most part the spycraft he presented was rooted in 1960s-era terminology and procedures but I would have loved to have seen a collaboration between him and Cory Doctorow involving cryptocurrency, tech billionaires intentionally subverting democratic processes, state-sponsored terror and assassination campaigns, and the kind of money laundering and reputational whitewashing that has been revealed by the Panama Papers, the FinCEN files, Mauritius Files leaks, and the Credit Suisse and HSBC leaks. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/8 "2025-10-25T20:43:56Z")
Depends on what you want to happen that would count as better. Tonally it won’t change, there probably won’t be a big action set-piece, the main character will still be a dick if that’s how you see him now. _Our Game_ sits about the mid-point of John le Carre’s output, and its flanked by the _Night Manager_ and _Tailor of Panama_, both of which have been turned into very good TV series and movie respectively, and he was in period of excellent output. While he’s best known for the Karla trilogy (and see also Nick Harkaway’s recent addition to the canon), most of them are standalone examinations of the British secret services. At this time le Carre seems to have been most intent on using the novels as character studies on why people become involved in this world, so he dwells a lot on their background and complexities of their immediate life and why they decide to do things that would seem to be totally contrary to their norms and beliefs. This includes pacifists deciding to fight and kill, betray friends, flip their politics etc. Self-doubt and distrust at institutions as cynical or evil is a big thing too, especially the contradictions of British politics. If you read this or most other le Carre from this perspective, its almost incidental that these involve espionage, except for it being a very good way of bringing life-or-death moral situations to bear that requires the protagonist to make those sorts of ultra-hard choices. Its definitely not James Bond, and in some the most action can be an office argument or being tailed by someone but that’s not what he’s selling. It may not have been the one to dip into first for a standalone reading. Taken together they do have a wonderful magisterial half-century sweep as a critique of British foreign policy, the role of intelligence services in politics and study of human character under extreme stress. Doing that is a big project - it must be close to a metre of shelf space. Perhaps start with the first _Tinker, Tailor_ with Alec Guiness as already suggested, and then hook into the books. Always think of le Carre as nice cuppa rather than energy drink reading. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-lecarre-s-our-game-does-it-get-better/1024273/9 "2025-10-25T23:17:18Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > You thought _The Honorable Schoolboy_ had slow pacing and subtle clues? I found that it told its story at a breakneck pace with a kind of gonzo intensity that is atypical for le Carré; at some points it almost feels like it is imitating the style of Tom Wolfe or Terry Southern. I’ve read this many times. It does start slowly as we wander around the journalists and the grounds of the ambassador’s residence, and a group of characters we mostly won’t see much of later, and typical for Le Carre (in a good way) there isn’t much exposition & dialogue can be elliptical. I could see a first-time reader bogging down. I also ended up liking, much more than I expected, the Smiley/Karla prequel _Karla’s Choice_ by his son Nicholas Cornwell (as Nick Harkaway). It takes place immediately after _The Spy Who Came in from the Cold_ and does a terrific job evoking the Smiley series (with one quibble on my part regarding how he handles Smiley, but not a major one).