As Guillam is forced relentlessly into his own past, and old names come back to claim him--Bill Haydon, Percy Alleline, Toby Esterhase, Jim Prideaux, Connie Sachs and George Smiley himself--it becomes clear that perceived sins committed in the name of a forgotten necessity have by no means disappeared into the past where they belong; and that Peter Guillam, in the eyes of his accusers, is responsible for all of them.
In a story palpitating with tension, humor and moral ambivalence, le Carré and his narrator Peter Guillam present the reader with a legacy of unforgettable characters old and new.« less