When John LeCarre died, I assumed I’d read his last book.  A friend texted me that a new LeCarre book was coming out. I investigated and ordered it immediately. The title was Silverview. I wasn’t through the first two chapters before I sensed a younger, more daring author. The author had died at 90 years of age.  He had begun the Silverview manuscript over a decade ago but paused time and time again, in search of a missing element. His son–also a writer– fulfilled a promise and saw the project through. It’s a shorter novel, but has the watermark of his best work: two ideals compete for devotion, be they patriotism and love, the individual and the institution, or conscience and expedience. It’s typically a somber business where the final tone is set after the protagonists win–because while they mostly do win, in the end we learn the price our heroes paid for their virtue.

It might be worth remarking that about the same week LeCarre’s “last” book was released in the US, Ian Fleming’s “last” James Bond movie episode would debut in theaters.

The two franchises have British spies in common—predominantly male—but they both emerged in the 1960s, one as popular culture and one as a very literary  examination of sovereign conscience. And so what new themes will replace them and how graciously or fatuously will they resound new guiding myths?

Oddly, in my review of Dune, I invoke I, Robot and the warnings of the prescient writers of 60 years ago. The defense and espionage business has already long grappled with the ethics and efficiencies of using fewer human spies and soldiers, or perhaps looking at it another way, the ethics and efficiencies of using more electronic intel and “smart” munitions.

 

WRH