John le Carré, author of renowned spy novels such as Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, passed away in December 2020. Silverview was published as his last complete work and is a masterful study into the complex relations and characters involved during the investigation into a former secret service agent.
Julian Lawndsley is a former City trader who quit his job to open a bookshop in a seaside town in East Anglia. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Proctor who receives vital correspondence from an unlikely courier in Lily, a young single mother. In a classy spy-novel fashion, Proctor is spurred into a cat-and-mouse investigation, the subject of which is later revealed to involve a retired rogue agent and one of the contacts who Julian establishes in his new stint as a bookshop owner.
Owing to their covert and unpredictable nature, spies often resort to underhand or violent methods in their missions. But how often do civilians apply the same logic in career and life choices? For example, Julian thought that his salary would justify his soul-draining finance career, until he learned it didn't; and Lily refused to accept her spy family background, only to be reluctantly recruited into a mission that involved lying to certain close family in order to protect others. Given that this is le Carré's last novel, this sense of crisis over one's vocation, belief and value has special resonance as we also consider le Carré's decision to quit the service and pursue a literary career.
As well as ethics , personal emotions can compromise a spy's ability to carry out public duty. While Proctor, a classy and seasoned veteran may seem fully accustomed to the compartmentalization of his private and professional life, internal dialogue suggest that this division is anything but natural. The cool and witty personalities of service members in fact reveal a cynicism that can only be the result of many lessons learnt the hard way. While this struggle over one's sense of duty is also among the genre's more familiar tropes, it was especially relevant and well-placed here in light of Silverview's large cast of characters and the multiple perspectives they provide with regards to duty.
Besides ethics and duty, the central plot of a current service agent going after a retiree also raises the question of legacy. What is to be the legacy of the British Intelligence Service? As we follow the story, we are hooked by the question: What is so egregious about what the retired agent that he needs to be chased after? In the words of another retired spy that Proctor interviews,
"‘The thing is, old boy ... we didn’t do much to alter the course of human history, did we?’ said Philip. ‘As one old spy to another, I reckon I’d have been more use running a boys’ club.’"
The Intelligence Services may carry a certain glamour and mystique, but it is particularly fitting that in his last published novel le Carré finally raises questions about an institution that he has devoted his whole life writing about. But we know, at the very least, that the merits of Silverview as an entertaining and charismatic literary work will solidify le Carré's legacy as one of the greatest writers of all time.
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