The Barnes & Noble Review
One of John le Carré's boyhood memories is clutching his mother's hand while waving to his father, who stood high up behind a prison wall. Ronnie Cornwell was a charming rogue, a confidence man who ran frauds and visited jails all over the world. He once sent the teenage le Carré to St. Moritz to talk a hotel manager out of an overdue bill — "and while you're there, have yourself a steak on your old man." Yet his love for his sons overflowed in guilty tears, and his longest con was to finagle expensive private educations for them. (He later sent a bill.) As for waving to him in prison, however, Cornwell insisted that le Carré had misremembered. Cornwell had done a stretch at Exeter Jail, yes — but everyone knows that at Exeter you can't see into the cells from the road.
Is the memory real? This question in various forms drives le Carré's remarkable memoir, The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life. Le Carré began his career working for British intelligence and went on to revolutionize the intrigue genre with over twenty intricately wrought novels, like Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy and The Constant Gardener. Now in his eighties, he finds that pure memory is elusive "after a lifetime of blending experience with imagination." He believes what his father said, but he also knows that after that remembered day, a part of him never saw Cornwell wearing anything but a convict's uniform. One of the most haunting scenes of the book recounts the way the otherwise exuberant Cornwell would stand meekly at doors, waiting for them to be opened. As a prisoner, he had not been able to do this himself. And yet this memory is filtered as well: it comes secondhand, from le Carré's mother, who abandoned him in childhood and was an enigma thereafter. It, too, is clouded by time's opaque haze.
The Pigeon Tunnel is an episodic rather than a chronological memoir, jumping from scene to scene in le Carré's fascinating life. The deeply affecting chapter on Cornwell is not merely the best part of the book, it may well be the best thing le Carré has ever written. Other sections are less personal. Le Carré avoids writing about his marriages, friendships, and children, focusing instead on the relationship between his work as a spy and his chosen life as a novelist. The two careers have much in common with one another and with his father's line of work, he asserts, not least because they involve a complicated relationship to the truth. "To the creative writer, fact is raw material, not his taskmaster but his instrument, and his job is to make it sing."
Parts of this book sing a little too much. Fans of le Carré's intricate novels will recognize here his jargon-filled, world-weary dialogue and suspect embellishment. Such dialogue fills the chapter on spymaster Nicholas Elliott, who interviewed the traitor Kim Philby after Philby defected to the Soviet Union. Similarly, le Carré seems to make a good story even better as he recounts trying to collect a debt for his father from the Panamanian ambassador to France at age sixteen. He writes that the ambassador's wife, "the most desirable woman I had ever seen," played footsie with him under the table and then nibbled on his ear as they danced into the night. Such print-ready scenes are evocative but not entirely believable, and once again implicate the fraught relationship between memory and the creative act. Le Carré's biographer Adam Sisman contends that le Carré "enjoys teasing his readers, like a fan dancer, offering tantalizing glimpses, but never a clear view of the figure beneath." An air of mystery suits a thriller writer — especially one who used to be a spy. The Pigeon Tunnel shows that le Carré is at his best not when he renders scenes or snappy dialogue but when he simply observes. He has a marvelous eye. His diplomatic cover in the 1960s required him to escort dignitaries from place to place, including translating for a German politician meeting with Harold Macmillan. The British prime minister's "patrician slur . . . was like an old gramophone record running at a very low speed," le Carré writes. "A trail of unstoppable tears leaked from the corner of his right eye, down a groove and into his shirt collar." Le Carré briefly describes his great-grandfather, "whom I remember as a white-bearded D. H. Lawrence lookalike riding a tricycle at ninety." Best of all is a surreal meeting with Yasser Arafat, which occurred while le Carré researched the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a novel. As they embraced, le Carré sized up his man, whose brown eyes were "fervent and imploring." Arafat's famously patchy beard "is not bristle, it's silky fluff. It smells of Johnson's Baby Powder."
The meeting with Arafat illustrates a central concern of le Carré's working life: his commitment to research. It is an ironic preoccupation for a self-confessed fabulist. Although his early spying looms large in the public imagination, le Carré has gathered far more material for his novels during civilian trips to dangerous places. Many of the memoir's chapters recount these adventures. He spent time in the eastern Congo and Khmer Rouge Cambodia; he interviewed Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern terrorists. In every town he tried to find the watering hole where spies, diplomats, journalists, and men of fortune sought comfort and camaraderie. These settings and characters worked their way not just into his fiction but into his consciousness; they have set his novels apart from all other stories of intrigue. "An old writer's memory is the whore of his imagination," he confesses, late in this book. And among John le Carré's many talents, a splendid imagination looms large.
Michael O'Donnell is a lawyer who lives in Evanston, Illinois. His reviews and essays appear in The Nation, the Washington Monthly, and the Christian Science Monitor, among other publications.
Reviewer: Michael O'Donnell
The New York Times Book Review - Walter Isaacson
…charming…Le Carré's colorful depictions of his father not only make this book a delight, they reveal how the author became such a master of deception tales.
The New York Times - Michiko Kakutani
The Pigeon Tunnel is not an autobiography…Rather, it's a collection of reminiscences…that provide glimpses of the author over the years, hopping and skipping through time, and recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur—by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy. The book provides insights into the quicksilver transactions between art and life performed by Mr. le Carré in his fiction…As a spy, Mr. le Carré developed keen journalistic powers of observation that served him well as a novelist, and this volume is filled with wonderfully drawn portraits of writers, spies, politicians, war reporters and actors who possess a palpable physicality and verve.
Publishers Weekly - Audio
10/31/2016
In this assortment of memories from a master storyteller, le Carré reminisces about his posting as a young British intelligence officer in post-WWII Germany, his time in Gorbachev’s Russia, and research trips for his novels. People, places, times, dates, and events are jumbled together in no particular order, but manage, overall, to fit together and form an engaging and often insightful narrative. Le Carré proves a natural raconteur of his own work. His reading is smooth, conversational, and totally absorbing. He speaks easily of meeting with presidents, prime ministers, rebel fighters, and a variety of other people from around the world, giving most expertly rendered vocal characterizations that are as enjoyable for the listener as they are unexpected. Whether le Carré is describing being under fire from the Khmer Rouge, remembering his stint as a spy with MI5, or recounting the time he smoked dope in an opium den, his storytelling makes for fascinating listening. A Viking hardcover. (Sept.)
Publishers Weekly
06/13/2016
Always insightful, frequently charming, and sometimes sobering, the memorable tales told by master storyteller le Carré (A Delicate Truth) about his life will surely delight both longtime fans and newcomers. Le Carré’s stories take readers around the world, covering his posting as a young intelligence officer in post-WWII Germany, his time in Gorbachev’s Russia, and research trips for his novels. His witty reminiscences of situations both dangerous and absurd, and his well-delineated portraits of exceptional and quirky figures, bring to life the extraordinary adventures that fed his novels. Those novels deal with the slippery world of espionage, political intrigue, and secret agents—most famously through the exploits of English spymaster George Smiley. (Alec Guinness, who portrayed Smiley memorably on television, figures prominently in le Carré’s memoir as well.) In perhaps the most serious chapter, le Carré talks candidly about his con artist father, Ronnie, and the failings of both father and son. But his self-deprecating humor and wit are never far away, and he proves a most elegant and genial host on this tour of his life and work. (Sept.)
From the Publisher
One of the NP99: National Post’s best books of 2016
“Recounted with the storytelling élan of a master raconteur — by turns dramatic and funny, charming, tart and melancholy.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
“An illuminating, self-effacing and pleasurable inquiry into le Carré’s creative process, offering globe-spanning thrills of a different, but no less captivating kind than those associated with the novels.” —USA Today
“[Le Carré] is a polished raconteur, with an actor’s protean self-presentation, gifts of pace and timing, aptitude for entrances and exits.” —Wall Street Journal
“This incisive and witty memoir, by the man who long ago set the gold standard for modern espionage novelists, is a glittering treasure chest of great stories.” —The Seattle Times, "The Best Books of 2016"
“The Pigeon Tunnel is the literary equivalent of a long night spent in the company of a grand storyteller, who has saved up a lifetime of his best tales to share with you over several rounds of fine scotch. The collection leaves the impression of a man who has gone to impossible lengths for his words, bringing the farthest reaches of the globe, some of its cruelest inhabitants, and a small handful of genuine hero's back home for all of us.”—Entertainment Weekly
“The name ‘John le Carré’ attracts the audience, but it’s David Cornwell confiding in us here, as if over dinner, then chatting long into the evening over snifters of brandy, or, as he unspools memories of Russia, glasses of vodka.” —Associated Press
“The Pigeon Tunnel contains what le Carré calls 'tiny bits of history caught in flagrante,' all of them borrowed from the lived experience of a novelist whose career has more closely resembled that of a war correspondent than a literary celebrity....Spies are le Carré’s preferred subject, but through them he grapples with larger human truths that transcend the cloak-and-dagger underworld.” —The American Scholar
"Looking back on a life rich enough to spawn multiple globe-spanning novels...le Carré showcases his grand, cinematic sense of place and...the ineffable quality that defines a professional raconteur....The inviting, drinks-beside-the-fire style from a master of the craft never overtakes the details of le Carré's remarkable life or his strong insider's opinions on issues of geopolitical import since World War II." —Library Journal, starred review
“Always insightful, frequently charming, and sometimes sobering, the memorable tales told by master storyteller le Carré about his life will surely delight both longtime fans and newcomers.” —Publishers Weekly
"For all the cinematic glamour of le Carré's experiences, reflections on the workaday realities of fiction writing may provide the most engaging aspect of this colorful valediction. A satisfying recollection of a literary life well-lived.” —Kirkus Reviews
Library Journal
★ 09/15/2016
Now in his mid-80s, le Carré has been a best-selling spy novelist for more than half a century, beginning with the 1963 publication of the classic The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Looking back on a life rich enough to spawn multiple globe-spanning novels (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; The Constant Gardener, etc.), le Carré showcases his grand, cinematic sense of place and, over the book's 38 pieces—many of them sharp-eyed vignettes, others fully formed memories (including a long remembrance of a rocky relationship with his father, Ronnie)—the ineffable quality that defines a professional raconteur. It doesn't hurt that le Carré's reminiscences include a host of political leaders, writers and artists, and movers-and-shakers: Graham Greene, Margaret Thatcher, Alec Guinness, Yasser Arafat, Rupert Murdoch, and Francis Ford Coppola among them, as well as many whose identities remain hidden in the shadows. The inviting, drinks-beside-the-fire style from a master of the craft never overtakes the details of le Carré's remarkable life or his strong insider's opinions on issues of geopolitical import since World War II. VERDICT Highly recommended for readers interested in the history and evolution of the spy trade and political intrigue from a participant's perspective; le Carré's voice still resonates. [See Prepub Alert, 3/28/16.]—Patrick A. Smith, Bainbridge State Coll., GA
OCTOBER 2016 - AudioFile
John le Carré offers listeners a delightful treat with an engaging narration of his memoir. This collection of stories offers a peek into the vast and colorful inspirations for his novels as well as the events and people who shaped his own character. Listeners may feel as though they are nestled into a wingback chair with a glass of Scotch, sitting across from the great storyteller himself and hearing him recount amazing encounters from around the world. His Russian accents are as perfectly delivered as his deadpan humor. Whether or not listeners are familiar with le Carré’s fiction, his memoir is captivating and exciting. Settle in and enjoy the smooth, velvety sound of a master as he delivers his own story. J.F. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
