Some of the most striking parts of the novel are where Le Carré reveals how the narratives relied on by the security services are often incomplete, incorrect, hypothesized—constructed to answer the needs of neatness and political policy. The novel is made up of stories—and of stories within stories—reflecting the spy's trade but also acting to expose the potential abuse of language in the interests of power. In this context, the "truth" comes to be what the important people are predisposed to believe.

XREF: Connects to Foucault's concept of power shaping discourse and to broader critiques of official narratives in espionage literature.

Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, loc. 334