Le Carre's A Perfect Spy is, I hazard to claim, a perfect novel. It carries the adult thesis that the crucial shapings of character are emotional rather than rational, and it dramatizes such a range of humanity, such a range of response, in its pages. I recently reread this novel -- while traveling in Germany, Austria, and Swizterland, very appropriately -- that I heartily endorse and recommend, and for some the trappings of espionage will be a feature, but I hope for others it will only be a mere distraction.
Le Carre's novel is both an excellent spy novel and a classic work of literature precisely because Le Carre is such a good watcher of humanity and such a good reporter of humane responses. It's a thriller too.
Here's a passage that matters:
As for Pym, he was gazing on the glories of the kingdom he had dreamed of so long. The German muse had no particular draw for him, then or later, for all his loud enthusiasm. If she had been Chinese or Polish or Indian, it would have made no earthly odds. The point was, she supplied Pym with the means, for the first time, to regard himself intellectually as a gentleman. And for that Pym was eternally grateful to her.
As a first generation college student, I connect with this passage. Studying English Literature at UC Berkeley enabled me to regard myself, intellectually, as a gentleman. And that mattered.
