John le Carré and the art of betrayal
The novelist was fascinated by the traitor’s bargains and self-deceptions December 16, 2020
John le Carré: in his fictional world every gesture is shadowed with meaning Credit: Photo: Christian Charisius/dpa/PA Images
Towards the end of John le Carré’s
A Perfect Spy, a Czech spy called Axel alias Poppy chides the British double agent he is running. On entering Czechoslovakia, why did he use his real name? “They said I would be better being me,” replies Magnus Pym, “they call it natural cover.” Axel is angry or at least seems to be. In Le Carré’s world every gesture has a shadow meaning. “Have you no reality at all, Sir Magnus?” he demands, using his semi-affectionate nickname for the Englishman. By the end of this masterly interview, one of many in Le Carré’s fiction, Pym is so desperate not to disappoint Axel, so keen to gain the approval of a man he had in an earlier life betrayed,