"Although le Carre's thrillers, like the work of genre novelists, include resourceful agents, animated narratives, technical espionage devices, and entangled political affairs, his characters, Beene contends, are more reminiscent of Charles Dickens's best caricatures: their actions remind readers that decency, love, and the line between betrayal and loyalty are precarious. In the tradition of Joseph Conrad, Somerset Maugham, and Graham Greene, le Carre creates largely convincing characters whose often unshakable faith in conspiracy leads uncontrollably to treachery. Although often efficient, le Carre's people are pawns in an espionage chess game where betrayal is the basic tactic: once caught in the game, Beene observes, their only escapes are betrayal, death, or, worse, self-realization and angst, as is the case with the perennial character George Smiley. " "Le Carre is singular among contemporary writers because, Beene argues, he exchanges action, the mainstay of espionage fiction and that which makes the genre pure entertainment, for psychological debate and ethical paralysis. Le Carre writes of an "our side" indistinguishable from "theirs": "we" can be incompetent, fumbling, and mindlessly destructive; "they" can be decent, conscientious, and dedicated. ".