Saturday, April 21, 2018

Slow-reading John le Carré: Legacy of Spies


Is this his last novel?
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Georges: He’s well-known for saying, “This is my last book," or "This is my last interview.” Then he goes and does another.
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Smiley returns...
Pierre: Legacy of Spies. Hmm. It has a final ring to it. Like pulling all the threads together.
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Georges: Looking at the Cold War through the eyes of people nowadays. Who do not fully understand how cold and dark the era was.
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Pierre: I took a long time to read this book. I slow-read it. By which I mean, I read two pages forward and then bookmarked it for the next day one page back.
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Georges: You did this, I suspect, because you wished to savour the flavours.
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Pierre: It was not a gobble and go. It was not a page turner. You enter his mind and find chamber after chamber. All the time I’m thinking, is this the last time I sit at the table with a master?
________
Voice-over
Fast reading is for writers who drive their story only through suspense, what happens next.
Slow reading is reserved for writers who transcend a genre.
...

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