The Librarian Who Came in from the Cold
I recently rewatched the movie version of John LeCarre's novel The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. The book has been hailed as the most realistic spy novel since its publication in 1963. I have read the book and seen the movie multiple times. But in watching it again this week I was struck by one segment of the movie in particular. The story centers around Alec Leamas who is ostensibly being retired from the British Secret Service. This is in order to set in motion a highly complex plot to bring down the head of the East German Spy Service who has killed all of the British agents in East Berlin. After Leamas leaves the spy service he is sent to the unemployment office to find a job. His case worker, Mr. Pitt, finds him a job in the Bayswater Library for Psychic Research. Pitt tells Leamas: "They're an odd lot..." Leamas goes to work in the library and finds out the truth in Pitt's statement. Leamas immediately locks horns with the head librarian, Miss Crail, who tries to be a dictator with Leamas. When he goes out at lunchtime he hits the local pub for some drinks as well as some food shopping. He brings his shopping bag into the library and draws a sharp reprimand from Miss Crail: "I regret" she continued at last, "that we do not allow it, bringing shopping bags into the library." Miss Crail grows to hate Leamas in the short time he works at the library. However, the other librarian, Liz Gold, is friendly to him and they fall in love. She is a menber of the British Communist Party and is eventually dragged into the plot against Leamas' wishes. When she is brought into a tribunal in East Berlin to testify, Leamas tells them to send her home and he will tell them everything. He describes her thus: "She's just a frustrated little girl from a crackpot library-she's no good to you. " Then he realizes that the operation is not at all what he thought it was with tragic consequences for the both of them.