Currently reading
The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature (Canto)
Boys and Girls Learn Differently!: A Guide for Teachers and Parents
Ambition and Survival: Becoming a Poet
Deep River: The Life and Music of Robert Shaw
Daring, Trusting Spirit
The Vatican Diaries: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Power, Personalities, and Politics at the Heart of the Catholic Church
The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia
The Honorable Schoolboy
The middle book of the Le Carre trilogy of George Smiley. After Bill Haydon is identified as the mole in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", Smiley is put back in charge of things to clean up. "The Honorable Schoolboy" is the book about cleaning up and restoring lost trust. Every project or agent or bit of work that Bill Haydon had been involved in has to be stopped or removed and then researched to see if the work was corrupted and if the data is accurate. This is literally "cleaning out the stables".One project that was ignored totally by Haydon is deemed to be clean from corruption, so it is pursued and built on. This project will be the cornerstone of the Circus demonstrating that they can return the British secret service to productive work. The primary character in the book is Jerry Westerby, whom we met in "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy". Jerry is a journalist and uses this as his cover doing work for the Circus. He is sent to Hong Kong to work on finding a link to Karla when he "goes native". Feeling sympathy and even affection for some of the British secret service agents whom he sees as being used and abused by the system, he rescues Lizzie the "femme fatale" and then tries to keep the Circus from capturing a Hong Kong Soviet operative. In one way he succeeds (Lizzie is rescued) but ultimately he fails as the operative is captured and then handed over to the Americans.What is interesting in this book is what George Smiley knows, and when he knows it. Guilliam speculates that much of the work Smiley is doing, which ends up in the hands of the CIA's, is done because Smiley wants it to happen. Smiley knows he will never find favor in the international secret service community, so he almost manipulates things so that they are handed over to Saul Enderby, whom we will meet further in the last book, "Smiley's People". Or is Smiley unaware of what is happening? It is left unanswered, and you are left to try to wrestle with this on your own.This would be a great movie, I hope that at some point it is made into one!
