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The Russia House (Magill Book Reviews)

E.M. Foster wrote, “If I had to choose between betraying my friend and betraying my country, I hope that I would choose to betray my country.” Le Carre has dealt with this dilemma before: In A PERFECT SPY, the main character, Magnus Pym, betrays his country, his wife, his friends, in atonement for an early betrayal of a close friend. Unlike Magnus Pym, Barley Blair is not a professional spy; he has acquiesced into being hijacked by the intelligence services. He is signing confidentiality papers before he even knows what he is becoming involved in.

Barley has been chosen as the recipient of a manuscript by a Russian scientist, nicknamed Goethe, because of a drunken conversation the two had at a party during the last Moscow book fair. The manuscript contains information about Soviet missile capabilities, or their lack. Because Barley has skipped the Moscow audio fair, the manuscript finds its way into the hands of British intelligence, which calls Barley in and recruits him to go back to Moscow for the next book fair, find Goethe, and ask him questions designed to let the services know how trustworthy he and his information are.

The plan goes wrong. The British and the American “espiocracy” refuse to acknowledge the signs, and Barley is faced with Forster’s dilemma: Will he betray Katya, Goethe’s messenger, with whom he has fallen in love, or will he betray his country?

Le Carre’s handling of plot is deft as always, and the reader becomes drawn into the machinations of the spy establishment. While THE RUSSIA HOUSE is enjoyable and le Carre still far and away the best writer in the espionage genre, the novel does not match A PERFECT SPY, his previous novel, in richness. Many characters are little more than sketches, and though one likes and cares about Barley, he remains in many ways a cipher. Nevertheless, a le Carre novel is always a blessing.

Sources for Further Study

Los Angeles Times Book Review. June 18, 1989, p. 2.

The New Republic. CCI, August 21, 1989, p. 30.

The New York Review of Books. XXXVI, September 28, 1989, p. 9.

The New York Times Book Review. XCIV, May 21, 1989, p. 3

Publishers Weekly. CCXXXV, April 21, 1989, p. 79.

The Times Literary Supplement. August 4, 1989, p. 851.

The Washington Post Book World. XIX, June 4, 1989, p. 3.

The World & I. IV, September, 1989, p. 424.

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