Had Florian given away the Service’s plans or its paralysis? Its sources, or the fact that some part of it had thrown off a long tradition of objective advice in favour of a giddy late-life romp through the wild woods of colonial fantasy? [loc. 2381]
Le Carré's last completed novel, polished and published by his son Nick (whose afterword is as fascinating as the novel itself). I suspect if Le Carré had lived, he'd have expanded some parts of Silverview, maybe sketched in a bit more background for Julian Lawndsley, City broker turned rural bookseller, who has a bad habit of credulity.
There are two viewpoint characters: the aforementioned Julian, who encounters a chap, Edward Avon, who claims to be an old friend of his father; and Proctor, a witchhunter, Head of Domestic Security, who's investigating a breach of security brought to his attention by Edward's wife Debbie, and couriered to London by their daughter Lily. And at the heart of the novel is Edward Avon, whose wife Debbie (formerly a brilliant intelligence analyst) is dying of cancer; Edward -- 'call me Teddy' -- who guides Julian's literary purchases (one cannot help but wonder why Julian, who has never heard of Chomsky or Sebald, has chosen bookselling as a career) and asks in return only a few small favours: a letter hand-delivered to a woman in Belsize Park, use of a computer to track down some porcelain ...
While I can see how the novel might have been reworked and expanded had Le Carré lived longer, I liked it very much in its current state. Nick Cornwell's afterword indicates that he inherited Silverview in a state not much different to its published form: "it was more than usually polished for a document not yet in proof, and... it was a kind of perfect reflection on his previous work – a song of experience – and yet fully its own narrative, with its own emotional power and its own concerns. What held him back? What kept it in his desk drawer, to be taken out and redrafted again, and again put away, unsatisfying, until this moment? What, exactly, was I supposed to fix?" [loc. 2624] Perhaps, as Cornwell suggests, Le Carré held off publishing Silverview because it showed the gradual disintegration of the Service. Or perhaps there would have been more of a sense of closure, of the many betrayals and complex loyalties of Edward Avon coming together in one grand final act. But I think the indeterminacy is very effective, and the disintegration feels apt for these post-EU years.
Fulfils the ‘published posthumously’ rubric of the 52 books in 2023 challenge.
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