Great follow up to previous Smiley novels, this time with his assistant as main character and only a brief appearance at the end. Great read!

I think this book was well worth reading, but it's not one of John Le Carre's best. I wish he leave the cold war behind and write about current affairs.

The greatest aspect of the novel is having our Peter G. all to ourselves as an intimate narrator. The amazing thing is the voice is absolutely familiar, even though we never heard it directly before. Viewing the full sweep of Circus history was also a delight. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about then the book is not for you— yet. You first need to read ALL the George Smiley novels. That in itself is worth it. ) The flaw I think is the end. OK I confess that I haven’t loved all of Le Carre’s ends, but they always seemed aesthetically impressive— even if you weren’t going to hang it in your living room. But in this case, it seemed like he just got tired and needed a quick wrap up. Along with a veiled anti-Brexit dig. (I had no idea George was a so pro-Europe all these years. Hmmm. )

Ugh. . . This book is a painful slog.

I have always thought that LeCarre was the best English prose writer of our time. He hasn’t missed a beat with his latest. The Smiley character is one of the greats of literature. His writing is like poetry.

Tedious at first then worth the wait.

A fan of the author and genre, but unfortunately this was extremely disappointing.

Le Carres gorgeous prose and the juxtaposition of modern sensibilities upon Cold War paranoia make for a great read

With all due respect the author would be best served putting the pen down and finding peace. The art left him long ago, this was terribly boring, impossible to follow and grossly over rated. It was awful and I can't imagine why I read it other than the Lacarre name and shame on me!

Seldom can I not finish a book once I purchase it, but it happened with this one. I saw the author on “60 Minutes” and he was an interesting guy, so I read the sample on the book store and enjoyed it. Within a few pages after the sample the plot became muddled. I couldn’t remember who was who (what team they were one, good guy or bad guy) or where the book was going. Disappointing. Save your money.