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THE TAILOR OF PANAMA
by John Le Carre
1/2
Kelvin Ha
Rating: ***1/2 out of *****.
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton. 1996.
For the last three decades, John Le Carre has written of the intentional British short-sightedness towards their new place in the post-World War II world order. In almost all of his novels of espionage, it is the refusal to accept the fact that Britain has lost its position as a world leader that leads it to ignore enemy moles within its midst and also cause it to take morally indefensible positions.
"The Tailor of Panama," his latest offering since 1995's "Our Game," (also reviewed by the same writer: editor) is no different. Basically a very good and sound story, the novel tells of how Harry Pendel, a British national working as a tailor in Panama City, is seduced into the covert world of espionage by a British intelligence arm seeking to regain some prestige and international power for Britain. However, Pendel is an ex- convict who has created what in intelligence terms is called a "legend" for himself. Having left Britain, he "tailors" a new life for himself as a former Saville Row tailor beset by hard times who has to relocate to Panama to be with his wife, an American born in the Canal Zone.
Into his securely tailored world walks Andrew Osnard who declares himself a spy for merry England. Eager to make a fortune for himself, he recruits Pendel as an agent because he is in the best position to listen as he serves the elite in the Panamanian government and military. The premise of the novel is that once the Panama canal reverts back to the Panamanians, the Japanese will negotiate a treaty to cut a second canal, thus leading to their domination of world shipping channels between the Atlantic and Pacific.
A bankrupt Pendel eagerly accepts this position offered by Osnard and starts cutting stories and tailoring gossip he hears during his everyday work into vital information and then passing it to Osnard as secret information. And in this manner, a Silent Opposition to the incumbent Panamanian government is created out of thin air and made known to British intelligence which then passes on the information to the Americans.
The notion of an intelligence fabricator is not new in espionage fiction. Graham Greene's "Our Man in Havana" was superb in satirising how a bumbling British intelligence agency is taken for a ride by one of its agents in Havana. Le Carre himself wrote a novel about an ill-fated mission based on half fabricated information called The Looking Glass War. And a looking glass world is exactly what he paints in "The Tailor of Panama." Pendel believes in the imaginary world he has created and pretty soon, it becomes a reality to him. Fed as intelligence to the politicians, this is a sure-fire recipe for a humanitarian disaster.
With this novel, Le CarrJ shows he is still able to churn out good fiction after last year's disappointing "Our Game." The Tailor of Panama returns Le Carre firmly to the ranks of the premier spy fiction writers.
Kelvin Ha was approached by Interior Ministry officials during his university days. They wanted him to become a spy, but he politely declined on the grounds that he was not willing to work for honour and fresh air as they could not afford to pay him what he was worth.The Flying Inkpot Rating System:
* Wait for the TV2 broadcast.
** A little creaky, but still better than staying at home with Gotcha!
*** Pretty good, bring a friend.
**** Amazing, potent stuff.
***** Perfection. See it twice.
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