John le Carré's People

Anton Corbijn's "A Most Wanted Man" recently opened in theaters in Great Britain. It was an adaptation of John le Carré's novel of the same name published in 2008. The film, which made its debut at Sundance early this year, featured Philip Seymour Hoffman as a German espionage agent. It was his final work. (The Academy Award-winning actor passed away on February 2.) The novel was a reference to George W. Bush's foreign policy after 9/11. It was no less exciting than the Cold War, when the British novelist worked for the British intelligence services MI5 and MI6. This was the time where he wrote under a pen name.

Too many spies

Spy fiction came before le Carré, its treatment would depend on the period. It was about adventure during the turn of the 20th century (e.g. Anthony Hope's "The Prisoner of Zenda"), but it became complicated after World War II. No one knew it better than le Carré.

"Nevertheless, it is the spies, professional charmers and persuaders that they are, and bullies when they need to be, who have so successfully lobbied parliament; it is the spies who will approve and pick and brief the lawyers; the spies again who will produce the witnesses and present the evidence that the luckless claimant may never get to see or question," he said.

"The Spy Who Came in from the Cold", his third novel, propelled him to stardom. It depicted Western espionage methods as morally inconsistent with democracy and values during the 1960s. Alec Leamas, the ranty agent of "The Circus" (a.k.a. British Secret Intelligence Service), was asked for one last mission: to induce the defection of a senior East German operative named Mundt, and then to expose him as a British double agent. To bring Leamas to the East Germans' attention as a potential defector, the Circus sacked him and left him with a small pension. A short stint in a run-down library led him to Liz Gold. They would be lovers, she could have turned his life around. But Leamas was too jaded.

He met Fiedler in East Germany, whom he was quite intrigued. The young Jew, who was in Canada during the war, was brilliant and idealistic. He questioned the morality of his actions, what they were doing, but believed he was right. But Fiedler was walking on tight rope; he was deputy to Mundt, an ex-Nazi who became a Communist out of expediency. He remained an anti-Semite. He was still brutal and opportunistic. Liz became an unwitting pawn. Leamas didn't foresee it.

No more credible nemesis

Some pundits pointed out that Spy fiction lost its allure after the Cold War ended. No more evil empire, not even exchanges at Checkpoint Charlie. Many authors under this genre, including le Carré, struggled to find an enemy. A handful traveled back to the past, but there couldn't be another one like Leamas (or Len Deighton's Harry Palmer, who was probably the only spy who knew how to cook.) Then came the War on Terror.

"A Most Wanted Man" earned favorable reviews, but some questioned le Carré's knowledge. The Middle East may be too complex for a Western mind to understand. Unlike the Cold War, there may be no end to this conflict.