John Le Carré Works Out Some Obsessions In 'Agent Running In The Field'
Le Carré's latest novel presents an aging, embittered spy dealing with multiple claims on his loyalties — and a challenger to his supremacy at badminton, a sport le Carré himself played and loves.
At 88, novelist John le Carré continues to turn out books that writers of any younger age would kill to publish. Agent Running in the Field, his 26th, opens cheekily with a badminton challenge: Nat, close to retirement and even closer to redundancy due to his inability to accept authority, is obsessed with this racquet sport.
He belongs to a peculiarly genteel (read: wholly British) sort of gym, the Athleticus Club, where there's a rota for matches, a dressing room," in the intelligence service he works for at whom he constantly snipes.
