Where Horse Under Water (the immediately prior "Secret File" by Deighton) had a crossword conceit, Funeral in Berlin is instead ornamented with chess tactics and lore. I read it as a chaser to The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, and it worked well that way, highlighting the distinctive styles of the two authors--not to mention the fact that Deighton's book did in fact follow le Carré's by about a year (i.e. 1963, 1964).

The anonymous narrating agent cracks wise with even more consistency than in the previous books. There are fifty-one short chapters, which tend to lengthen slightly towards the end. The extremely circumspect first-person prose is broken up with five chapters that use third-person passages to give the viewpoints of other key characters. There are also a set of six brief appendices furnishing overviews of relevant intelligence agencies and legal and technological contexts. These are helpful for readers enjoying the book more than a half century after it was written, but for some reason I was irked by the footnote method of referencing them during the story.

There were a couple of curious and welcome minor details during the closing chapters. Chapter 45 saw our man unwinding with a copy of J.F.C. Fuller's Decisive Battles of the Western World. In chapter 49 he discussed with his superior Dawlish the organizational need "to take the social pressures off the homosexuals."

The 2009 edition I read was equipped with a new author's introduction regarding his "most successful book" by certain commercial measures. Deighton reflects there on his own experiences in East Germany and his disinterest in writing "serious literature."

At the rate I've been reading these "Secret File" novels, I won't finish them until 2035 or thereabouts, but they are all at the public library, and they read fast enough individually that I could mop up all of them next month. I certainly aim to continue at some pace or other.

I liked this book just fine, but I would have liked it even more if I had understood what was going on. ( )

The 3rd in the 7 Harry Palmer books. This story covers the classic defection sub-genre, again with double and triple crosses as well as check-point-charlie drama all adding to a great page turner. ( )

The WOOC(P) Files #3
Review of the Penguin Modern Classics paperback edition (April, 2021) of the original Jonathan Cape hardcover (1964)

Stok was bubbling over with gaiety. He prodded Harvey and said, 'I tell you a joke. The factory workers say that it's impossible to do anything right. If you arrive five minutes early you are a saboteur, if you arrive five minutes late you are betraying socialism, if you arrive on time they say, "Where did you get that watch?" Stok laughed and spilled his drink. The Czech officer looked at him in shy disbelief and offered his packet of Memfis cigarettes.
'Another,' said Stok. 'Capitalism is the exploitation of man by man. Yes? Well socialism is exactly the reverse.'
Everyone laughed and swilled down another drink. Harvey was getting quite merry. He said to Stok, 'Where do you get all these gags - Reader's Digest?'
Stok grinned. 'No, no, no, no - from people. That one about capitalism and socialism - we arrested a man for telling that this morning.' Stok laughed his booming baritone laugh till the tears came into his eyes.
Harvey said to me softly, 'Is he kidding?'
'Who knows?' I said. - excerpt from Funeral in Berlin

See image at https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ac/f3/dd/acf3dd594d20d122e237c7e6c7693d80.jpg
Michael Caine as Harry Palmer in a film still from Funeral in Berlin (1966), image sourced from Pinterest.

Funeral in Berlin had more of a coherent plot with less confusing subplots than the previous outings for Deighton's nameless protagonist who works for a similarly anonymous British secret service known only by its initials WOOC(P). There were still the twists of betrayals and of many of the characters not being who they seemed at first, but it was all well handled. Deighton adds to his protagonist's first person narration by adding several chapters from the point of view of the other characters. The banter with his own office staff and characters from the Foreign Office was topped up with the dark humour of interactions with characters from the Soviet Bloc such as in the example above.

Funeral in Berlin is the 3rd of my Deighton re-reads after having recently learned of the Penguin Modern Classics republication of all of the novels which is being planned over the course of 2021 in an online article Why Len Deighton's spy stories are set to thrill a new generation (Guardian/Observer May 2, 2021).

Trivia and Link
Funeral in Berlin was filmed (the 2nd Secret File/Harry Palmer book Horse Under Water was skipped over in the film adaptations) as Funeral in Berlin (1966) directed by Guy Hamilton. ( )

‘You live only once,’ said Stok. ‘I can make once do,’ I said.

Drier wit and none of the technological digressions that mar other Deightons; avoids the cliches while coining his own. ( )