I don't know what I'm defending. Or what I'm representing; who does? 'A gentleman who lies for the good of his country,' they told us with a wink in London. 'Willingly,' I say. 'But first tell me what truth I must conceal.' They haven't the least idea. Outside the Office, the poor world dreams we have a book bound in gold with POLICY written on the cover .. God, if only they knew.
He finished his wine.
Perhaps you know? I am supposed to obtain the maximum advantage with the minimum of friction. What do they mean by advantage, I wonder: power?
I doubt whether power is to our advantage. .. The opposite of love isn't hate; it's apathy. Apathy is our daily bread here. Hysterical apathy.
Have some more Moselle.
For more than 50 years,
John Le Carré has quiet-
ly been depicting the re-
lationship of espionage
to everyday life. The ex-
tinguishment of the Cold
War infamously drove the
leadership of the West to
discover new emergencies,
to sustain the permanent
investment in defense. He
has followed them with
tools he refined as a
practicing historian of
their method, which has
been as constant as their
underlying anxiety; and
he has shown them to be
representative.
He has a new book. Its
frontispiece bears the
promise from John Donne:
No winter shall abate
the spring's increase.
John Le Carré
A Small Town in
Germany
William Heinemann,
1968©
A Delicate Truth
Viking,
2013©
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