“In John le Carré: The Biography Mr. Sisman creates an insightful and highly readable portrait of a writer and a man who has often been as elusive and enigmatic as his fictional heroes.”
“It is a disappointment to reach the end of John le Carré, which is admirably scholarly but far too long, and find no valedictory assessment of its subject’s literary achievement.”
“The biography one imagines le Carré wanted: admiring without being toadying, detailed without being overstuffed, highly readable and, above all, knowledgeable about the work.”
“In the Sixties and early Seventies, when such figures had more clout, le Carré was writing on a different level, and the best parts of Sisman’s biography detail the circumstances that gave The Spy and Tinker Tailor their lightning-in-a-bottle quality.”
“Written for the record, compiled with the novelist’s full cooperation but scrupulously corroborated on every detail, every parallel in David Cornwell’s role as son, husband, lover, author and celebrity tracked to its counterpart in the novels of the pseudonymous John le Carré, it makes any future biography unnecessary.”
“This is an authorized biography, but one worthy of our trust. Sisman doesn’t hesitate to point out when his research shows that le Carré’s own accounts of events are inaccurate. Rich in detail—600 pages of fairly small print—the book is nonetheless unfailingly engrossing.”
“John le Carré: The Biography shows us that the novelist's real life is just as fascinating as those le Carre depicts in his novels. Though le Carre described his five-plus years in intelligence work as "negligible," Sisman proves that his subject is just being self-effacing—and that there's plenty more in the author's life worth digging into.”
