But The Spy Who Came in From the Cold is only “just a spy novel” in the sense that Moby Dick and “The Secret Sharer” are “just sea tales” or “The Turn of the Screw” and “Afterward” are “just ghost stories." Sure, they fulfill the requirements of their genres. I certainly was stupid all these years, for I did not read this book-at least in part-because I considered it “just a spy novel” (albeit a superb one), and the “spy novel"-at least since Ian Fleming ruined it-is not one of my favorite genres.
I am of two minds now that I have finished The Spy Who Came in From the Cold for the first time: I am irritated at myself for having postponed the pleasure of reading this magnificent book for so many years, and yet I am exhilarated and excited too, marked by this unqualified encounter with greatness.
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