Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsPerhaps a reluctant memoir, but still very interesting
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2018
Like other faithful, fervent consumers of Cornwell’s oeuvre, I was hoping, unreasonably perhaps, for a soul-baring, deeply introspective description of what made him tick at every stage of his writing career. Unreasonable, because why should he do so? The man is entitled to his privacy, entitled not to bare his very soul to those whose adoration he probably never coveted, and probably finds tiresome.
No, the stories are very interesting, and reveal the well-traveled researcher that I had hoped he has been, and there are a number of insights into his personal character, driven largely by the mercurial storm of disfunction that was Ronnie. For everyone who wonders what it is that makes a good story teller and writer so, however, the “recipe” just doesn’t come through. Perhaps because there IS no such recipe, and the author himself may not KNOW what makes him so good at what he does. The mystery remains.
What IS completely satisfying, however, is the stories of how his characters evolved from people he met and analyzed. And really, with interesting, flawed, human characters being the thing that separates “LeCarre” and Smiley from Clancy and Jack Ryan, that’s probably a more important contribution than knowing which leg Mr. Cornwell puts into his trousers first.
