Novels and Theorems

I went to the bookshop but the Da Vinci Code is sold out.

That? You haven't read it yet?

Well, I admit, no. I know it's not rated greatly, but I need something light to balance Thomas Mann.

You like classical books?

I do. I just finished Tale of Two Cities. But I also like science books. I am a physicist by training, you know.

Have you read Deva Sobel's Longitude?

Oh yes, the book about clocks.That was good.

And Fermat's Last Theorem? Some people say if you put one theorem in a book, you lose thousands of readers.

Well, I'm not so sure. Many educated people read novels nowadays.They demand more out of mere stories. They want ideas. Even physicists read novels. I number among my friends ten of them.

Yes, but there are not so many physicists in the world
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John le Carré

I’ve always never been able to, to...
Always never?
OK, OK, never. Pedant. Never been able to resist buyng the latest le Carré novel as soon as it comes out.
In hardback?
In hardback mostly.
But, he’s just a, just a...
Writer of spy novels? Sure, but he transcends the genre.
Escapism. You ever wanted to be a spy? You have secret aspirations of stalking people?
Again, never. But it’s his telling a story, the way he stages verbal and descriptive battles between old and new adversaries against grand geopolitical backdrops.
Nothing new in that. Sounds like a formula for any cheap airport thriller.
OK.OK. How about his writing. Tight and taut. Snappy and suspenseful. Erudite editing.
Detective fiction. Dashiell Hammett was good at it years ago. B movies. Film noir. Maltese Falcon. Good but scarcely great.
Point taken. Well, that leaves dialogue. Like here:

He put his next question in Russian – and in the brutal accents of Moscow officialdom.
“In 1956, you were granted permission to leave the Soviet Union for the purpose of nursing your sick husband, the traitor Ostrakov? Also for certain other purposes?”
Ostrakov was not a traitor,” she replied, cutting him off. “He was a patriot.” And by instinct she took up her shopping bag and clutched the handle very tight.

But such exchanges are no more than challenge and counterpoint. His issues are solemn and provoke outrage. There is little of Wilde or Shaw in the clever ripostes, either social or political.
Well let’s go back to the genre, I think you have to admit that even Homer wrote action movie scripts. You cannot deny that.
No, but I think that would still only make the score something like 3-1 against le Carré.
Against?
His works being read as long as Homer.

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