The Spy Who Came In From the Cold

The Spy Who Came In from the Cold by John le Carré
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is Le Carre's first successful novel but not one I've read before. It does seem like a general (and very well executed) template for his later ones. Which is to say the characters live in an isolated world or deceit and artifice and the tiniest bits of true connection with another human become inordinately valuable because of their rarity. And then get used to torture the characters who foolishly indulged in them and gut-punch the reader.