Description
Len Deighton's epic story of treachery in three acts.
Taking as its metaphor the marriage between two. high-ranking secret agents . . . one of whom may be a traitor - Game, Set and Match explores to its deepest level the nature of betrayal and deception in modern society.
Len Deighton has always used the spy thriller as the framework for investigating much wider themes of character and motive, but with this trilogy he has undeniably emerged as a major novelist.
The transition can be seen in the creation of his first truly great women characters: Fiona the wife, whose imperious and enigmatic presence, winds like a theme tune through the story, Zena, the provocatrice, whose romantic sexuality probably hides the coldest mind of them all, and Tante Lisl, repository of too many memories and countless secrets.
No one uses backgrounds to more subtle effect than Len Deighton, and here the cities themselves become a mirror for the action cool, grey Berlin with its echoes of lost childhood: Mexico City, violent with sensuality and colour, the melting pot in a very literal sense which will leave the role of no character unchanged.
London, suave capital of espionage and diplomacy, where veneer tell us all and nothing.
Through รก complex world of whispers and glances, half-open doors, darkened cars and shuttered houses, we are led by one narrator, Bernard Samson, certainly a spy, maybe a traitor. We observe the events of the narrative through
his eyes- yet we know that he does not see all there is to see. More significantly still, we suspect that he does not pass on to us everything he sees. This brilliant sleight-of-hand is perhaps the most remarkable of all Deighton's achievements in Game, Set and Match, and is what makes this trilogy the masterpiece among his works.
