The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

“She put his age at fifty, which was about right. She guessed he was single, which was half true. Somewhere long ago there had been a divorce; somewhere there were children, now in their teens, who received their allowance from a rather odd private bank in the City.”

This passage encapsulates how Leamas is so mysterious that nothing about him can be precisely determined. His exact age and exact national origins are unclear, his social status open to interpretation. Even his children, who ought to constitute a major part of his identity, are as vague to him as he is to them—he knows only their general age range, and they know him as an anonymous purveyor of money.

“‘I mean, you’ve got to compare method with method, and ideal with ideal. I would say that since the war, our methods—ours and those of the opposition—have become much the same. I mean you can’t be less ruthless than the opposition simply because your government’s policy is benevolent, can you now?’ He laughed quietly to himself. ‘That would never do,’ he said.”

John le Carré explores the Cold War in a nuanced way, and while he was never sympathetic with communism or the Soviet state, he was insistent that the sins of one side did not excuse the sins of the other. Here Control admits that in terms of tactics, the two sides are much the same. He tries to justify it by stating that the West’s ideals are superior, but Control seems to be repeating a cliché rather than declaring a firm belief.

“Some said he made a mistake in Berlin, and that was why his network had been rolled up; no one quite knew. All agreed that he had been treated with unusual harshness, even by a personnel department not famed for its philanthropy. They would point to him covertly as he went by, as men will point to an athlete of the past, and say: ‘That’s Leamas. He made a mistake in Berlin. Pathetic the way he’s let himself go.’”

One of the paradoxes of Leamas’s mission is that he has to make himself forgotten in a memorable way. His descent into irritability and addiction must be conspicuous enough to draw attention, repellant enough to push people away, and yet not so obnoxious as to make it worthy of lasting memory.