Spoilers below, not that anyone who ever comes across this post will care.
Not really in the same league as The Quiet American, but that's a pretty high bar. It's subdued and sad. Some of the characters (especially the villains) are a bit caricaturish but the main character is really well drawn, and his relationships with the caricatures around him don't themselves feel exaggerated or shallow. It's as though he's in focus, and the strings connecting him to everyone around him are in focus but only out to a point, and then they start to blur and by the time you follow them to the end you've just got sketchy outlines.
The story is about an old, tired spy whiling away his days in London on the forgotten southern Africa desk of MI6. The higher-ups suspect a leak in his section, and home in on his pathetic, alcoholic colleague. They're wrong.
Not really in the same league as The Quiet American, but that's a pretty high bar. It's subdued and sad. Some of the characters (especially the villains) are a bit caricaturish but the main character is really well drawn, and his relationships with the caricatures around him don't themselves feel exaggerated or shallow. It's as though he's in focus, and the strings connecting him to everyone around him are in focus but only out to a point, and then they start to blur and by the time you follow them to the end you've just got sketchy outlines.
The story is about an old, tired spy whiling away his days in London on the forgotten southern Africa desk of MI6. The higher-ups suspect a leak in his section, and home in on his pathetic, alcoholic colleague. They're wrong.
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