Pym and Axel

SPOLIER:







It is a setup, later Axel reveals he has recorded their converations and black mails Magnus into their partnership.



"Ask me about my vow of silence..."

As I recall from the book, which easily ranks as one of the most memorable I have ever read (and I read a fair amount), Magnus says well into the story, in the memoir he's writing for his son, something along the lines of "there's no better feeling than being a well-run spy." He essentially has turned himself over to Axel, in other words, and let Axel be his master. That's how I read it.
It has recently occurred to me - I am slow on these things, sometimes! - that Axel actually does so well as Magnus' handler because Axel serves as a substitute for the solid, dependable, reliable father that Magnus never had. I forget, now, whether or not Axel indicates in any way that he knows about Magnus' crappy childhood and consciously exploited it to his own ends. It's only after the father dies, too, that Magnus comes to his senses and deals directly with Axel and the situation inexorably links them - though there has been some suspicion of Magnus before, by his own service.
I've recently been watching a German TV series called Heimat - a marvelous series from the early 1980s, about Germany from 1919 to the 1960s; on disk at Netflix - and it features the actor (Rüdiger Weigang) who plays Axel. IMDB shows that he has not done a lot of films or movies, which is surprising. Perhaps he is more of a stage actor?
By the way, anyone who likes this book and/or the TV movie owes him or herself to find the short memoir of his father, Ronnie, that le Carré wrote in The New Yorker in (I think) 2005 or so. It is wonderfully written and reveals how much Rick Pym is based on the real father. Oh, and there is a good interview with le Carre in NYTimes, around the time of the book's original publication, in which the author also talks at length about the book's background. I have always wondered if he ever went to see a shrink about all of this. I would have!

What a smart man, what a great writer.

My reading of the situation is that Axel is a red-toothed Communist who is being manipulated by his masters. He tells us as much later on when he denounces all those little aristos, all those privileged schools that Pym's son attends, and so forth. But Axel also has genuine affection for Pym right from the outset of their relationship in Switzerland. He says as much to Mary Pym when she covertly meets him after her husband has disappeared following his father's Rick's death.

Unhappily for Britain and her Security Services, these convoluted relationships existed. One only has to look at the life of people such as Kim Philby who was another son of a devious father who converted to the Muslim faith for reasons of business advantage. How many agents Philby betrayed is unknown, but in Moscow he is considered a hero today with a place of honour in one of their cemeteries.

The answer lies in the title: A Perfect Spy

The best lie contains some elements of truth. The best spy have some sparks of sincerity.

In answer to another poster in the thread titled "Axel" saying that the series should demonstrate how Pym is "a perfect spy," it already did. Pym was a perfect spy not in the sense that he was capable of magnificent espionage feats (a James Bond or Jason Borne) but because he was capable of managing a split loyalty.