The Tailor of Panama (Random House Large Print) - Softcover

Le Carre, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679774130 ISBN 13: 9780679774136

Publisher: Random House Large Print, 1996

Synopsis

In a novel about global politics and the fate of truth in modern times, Harry Pendel, a tailor in Panama City who can claim politicians, presidents, crooks, and conmen among his customers, becomes an unlikely spy for British intelligence

About this title

Review:

John le Carré, the greatest spy novelist of the Cold War era, continues his post-Cold War quest to define the genre he helped perfect. The classic spy novel was essentially a story of good (England, the United States) vs. evil (Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union), in which good more or less prevailed. The Tailor of Panama is something else entirely: a spy novel with no spies in which the bad guys reap most of the rewards. It is also a viciously funny satire. The novel is set in Panama, where a plot is in place to make void the Panama Treaty, which would return control of the Panama Canal to the Panamanians in 1999. At the center of events is Harry Pendel, the tailor of the title. Coerced into working for British Intelligence, he concocts out of whole cloth a left-wing movement with the goal of luring the American military to do the dirty work--invade Panama à la 1989 and nullify the treaty. From the characters to the setting, le Carré has succeeded in setting new parameters for an old genre.

From the Publisher:

10 1.5-hour cassettes

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House Large Print
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679774130
• ISBN 13: 9780679774136
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 578