Finally, The Book Concludes

This has been a fun ride. The book caused me a ton of grief but it's done. I enjoyed the book, I found the movie version and I bought another book by le Carré. I think that's pretty successful for being just one book. The last line in the book really hit me, "Spying is waiting"(353). It made sense, but not just for spying, but with everything. I feel like it has a deeper meaning. It is cliché, but that's okay; not every meaning has to be obscure. Just like spying, finding what you truly want in your life takes time. You must wait for it to fall into place or else you might be depriving yourself of something greater. Basically, the entire book is one big message, with different messages for each reader. I took out that life isn't always what you expect it to be. Amazing things can happen in some of your darkest days. This may not be what the author wanted me to take out from it but that's how I feel. The book, looking a little dusty and hidden, popped out to me for a reason. I was brought along on a ride that made every little image and conversation something more meaningful than it had to be.

Almost Done!

Why hello there! I don't think iv'e said how much I absolutely love the book. There are little things as you read that make you say "wow". I found another "wow" moment early in chapter 13. Barley is meeting with Katya again for the Moscow book fair. He brought toys for her twins and a pipe for her brother; just for some background for the quote.

       "'Not green, you chump,' he told her.'Who ever saw a green cow? Katya, for heaven's sake, your daughter thinks cows are green.'
       'Oh Anna is completely impractical!' Katya cried laughing, and spoke quickly to Anna over her shoulder, who giggled up at Barley.
       And all this had to be heard over Matvey's continued monologue and Anna's immense hilarity and Sergey's troubled interjections, not to mention the anguished thunder of the little engine, until nobody could hear anything except themselves." (270)

There is a feeling of joy and excitement without ever having to say it. I pictured myself sitting in the car listening and watching all of these events all happening at once. That to me is good writing and amazing imagery without making it all too technical. I want to try to aim for that in my next writing piece for class or even just in my own notebook. Imagery is hard to do (at least for me), but le Carré makes it seem so easy. "...the anguished thunder of the little engine..." I would never imagine in a million years to put those words together but they flow so well and I can hear the engine making a sound like that.

Three Quarters In...The End is in Sight!

Words, that's what I wanted to focus on. What words express meaning in ways that entire sentences can? That's was my goal. So I took it upon me to find the best five words and give some information on it. Really annoying and boring, but I find it to help me think in a new way. It shows me what the author wants me to take out from the context. Without fancy words that we may never use in our daily dialogue, our minds cannot find fun ways to express itself.
1. Esoteric
       "...then to hear me 'talk turkey' with Johnny on such esoteric matters as whether                Barley could legally be styled an employee of our Service..."(218)
       Definition: Requiring or exhibiting knowledge that is restricted to a small group.
2. Delphic
       "I was Delphic, which annoyed them, but basically I said the answer was yes." (218)
       Definition: Often not capitalised: Ambiguous, Obscure <Delphic Utterances>
3.Commiseration
       "He lowered his voice in reverent commiseration." (233)
       Definition: To feel or express sorrow or compassion for.
4. Goad
       "...preferring to befriend him rather than to goad."(251)
       Definition: To incite or rouse as if with a goad
5. Nadir
       "The questions droned on and it was clear they would not stop until they had reached the nadir of their vulgarity."(262)
       Definition: The lowest point.
All of these words are easily used in the text. As writers, we can do the same as long as we are able to have a relationship with the word. What I mean by that is, if you are trying to use the word and it doesn't feel comfortable saying it, it probably isn't a word that you should use.

Just About 5/8 Of The Way There

Welcome back, I hope you didn't forget about me. My book has gotten really intense, well more confusing somehow. One thing I noticed that le Carré did was when Ned went to play the tapes, the room got eerily quite. The narrator, Palfrey, actually mentions it to himself. "It's a séance, I thought as their first words reached us. Barley and Katya are addressing us from the great beyond" (176). With those two sentences, you could feel the room getting quiet, almost becoming dimmer. Those two sentences accomplished something an entire paragraph could have; it showed emotion an imagery. Those are very important in the way you can write. As long as there are very nice clean sentences that show imagery and/or emotion can help make your writing stronger.

Half Way There...

Getting through the first part of any book is a difficult thing, even more when it's for school, but I did it. A lot has been happening in the book so far, a lot still has to happen. The English and the Americans are spying on the Russians, a publisher is made a messenger for the English and a Russian woman started the whole mess. On to something that I noticed though, the narration feels all jumbled. I can't tell whether is Palfrey (the narrator) speaking since the book is all in the past, sort of like a retelling. Or Katya (the Russian women who started the mess) talking since Palfrey had no way of knowing how she felt or what she was thinking. Or it could even be Barley (the English messenger) talking because of the same reason from above. It seems as if the narration jumps around with no clarity. I feel that everything John le Carré has done so far is amazing. The way he writes the characters out and the style he uses in his writing. If it wasn’t really for the last two chapters I read, chapters 7 and 8, I would have been perfectly content.

            I probably would try to only stick with two narrators at most if I was going to write something like this. It should be clear to the reader who the speaker is at all times and I’ve tried that in my writing many times before. Each time I failed, I was perplexed by the way it stumped me. I couldn’t read an example of one that wasn’t clear. Now that I have, I want to try to focus on making everything very clear. If I got stumped on a published authors writing, I can’t imagine how confusing mine must be.

Almost Half Way There...

I'm back again! As I was continuing my reading, I saw something that really struck me as curious. In many books that I have read in the past, when the focus on a character is changed, there usually is a new chapter starting or some sort of break thats clear. Not in this book though, the changed focus is subtle. I came across this in chapter 6. There is a bit of a break but nothing substantial that I could catch on my first reading of the page.

"She pressed the bell, three rings, then shoved the card under the door.



A perfect Moscow morning, alight and beckoning, the air alpine, a day to forgive all sins. The telephone call behind him, Barley stepped out of his hotel..." (120)
I tried to recreate the line break here so you can understand what I'm talking about. Normally I would have no problem reading this, and that was true. What I had a problem with was the fact I didn't catch it fast enough. If I had been paying attention to the words on the page instead of what they were saying, the following of the new person would have been clear.

A Quarter of the Way There!

As I started to read my book, I noticed how the book was being narrated. The name "Henry" kept popping up and I was getting confused. Who was this Henry? Why was he being spoken to? Is he significant in any way? And then the author, John le Carré, explained it. Henry was actually the narrator and he was speaking to himself in a way. "Though Harry is not my real name." (17) and "You need not stumble on me long. Horatio Benedict dePalfrey are my names but you may forget the first two immediately, and somehow nobody has ever remembered the 'de' at all. In the service I am Harry, so quiet often, being an obedient soul, I am Harry to myself." (29) The narrator was Henry but not really named Henry and he talked to himself. In the end of chapter one he gives us that he really isn't Henry, whom reveals that he is now the narrator. In chapter two though, he lets us know a little bit more. His actual name to start with and then what people refer to him as a way to distinguish himself.

This writing is something I am not used to. I would love to be able to use this technique in my writing. I love having a narrator in my short story pieces and in my writing in general. This way of having the narrator talk to themselves, talk to you and be involved in the story is amazing. This technique is hard to master but I feel that I could achieve that with a lot of hard work and great ideas, possibly one involving action and spies.