I’d give this three stars in spite of the great writing and incisive commentary on the spy business due to it being short stories with tenuous linkage. Most of the stories would have been better served by individual novels. And yet the cumulative effect of moving through time as one spy slowly evolves his views is worthy. Still, three stars but for the tear-inducing laughter of lines like this:

“One wit in the Pool mailroom said he came from nowhere at all: that he had been born as found, smelling of aftershave and power”

In any case, what a scuzzy business is spying.