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The Little Drummer Girl

John le Carré

3.97 · Rating details · 11,791 ratings · 629 reviews

John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim.

In this thrilling and thought-provoking novel of Middle Eastern intrigue, Charlie, a brilliant and beautiful young English actress, is lured into "the theatre of the r ...more

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Paperback, 672 pages

Published April 1st 2000 by Pocket Books (first published 1983)

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Dec 17, 2014 Jeffrey Keeten rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: spies, book-to-film

”What would it be like really and absolutely to believe? (...) To know, really and absolutely know, that there's a Divine Being not set in time or space who reads your thoughts better than you ever did, and probably before you even have them? To believe that God sends you to war, God bends the path of bullets, decides which of his children will die, or have their legs blown off, or make a few hundred million on Wall Street, depending on today's Grand Design?”

Joseph proved to be more than jus ...more

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Nov 29, 2018 Fergus rated it really liked it

When spy novelist John le Carré broke off from George Smiley’s complex world long enough to pen this terrifying thriller in 1979, it announced a New World of Terror.

So said The Guardian in October of 2018: they pronounced this the one book that best predicted our present paranoia.

Be that as it may, for me it was the stimulus that drove me to bury myself safely in a grey world of existential psychology.

For ‘the world (was) too much with (me)!’

Yes, with this novel the insularity of my little worl ...more

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Jan 28, 2020 Candi rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: espionage, mystery-crime, book-i-own, favorites, thriller

"They wanted her. They knew her through and through; they knew her fragility and her plurality. And they still wanted her. They had stolen her in order to rescue her…"

I have already officially declared myself a devoted John le Carré fan. It truly seems he cannot write something bad or even mediocre as far as I’m concerned. I knew with The Little Drummer Girl I would be missing my favorite spy, George Smiley. I’ve gotten pretty accustomed to seeing him in the pages of my novels every few months, "They wanted her. They knew her through and through; they knew her fragility and her plurality. And they still wanted her. They had stolen her in order to rescue her…"

I have already officially declared myself a devoted John le Carré fan. It truly seems he cannot write something bad or even mediocre as far as I’m concerned. I knew with The Little Drummer Girl I would be missing my favorite spy, George Smiley. I’ve gotten pretty accustomed to seeing him in the pages of my novels every few months, and I feared I’d feel the lack of his presence here. And I did miss him a bit. But no matter, this book blew me away! The behind-the-scenes mastermind of this adventure, Martin Kurtz, is a different sort of man altogether. He seemed to be made of sterner stuff.

"… he was too paradoxical, too complicated, made up of too many souls and colours… His power base was rickety and forever shifting, according to whom he had last offended in his quest for the expedient allegiance."

What I found really refreshing in this book was the appearance of a leading lady. Up until now, it seems the men have been the stars of le Carré’s stage. This time we have the pleasure of meeting a star of the London stage, Charlie.

"Her name was actually Charmian but she was known to everyone as 'Charlie,' and often as 'Charlie the Red' in deference to the colour of her hair and to her somewhat crazy radical stances, which were her way of caring for the world and coming to grips with its injustices."

Charlie is given the chance to act in the role of a lifetime - that of a double-agent in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. There is a terrorist bomber out there that needs to be stopped in his tracks, and it needs to be done from the inside. Charlie may have flirted with radicalism before, but she is way out of her element in this one. Enter Joseph, her recruiter. The working relationship between these two is complex to say the least. I for one got completely caught up in the dilemmas presented by the roles both assumed in this very nuanced ‘theater of the real.’

"He’s come to collect my soul, she thought as she swung jauntily past him in order to demonstrate her immunity. Yet when did I ever promise him he could have it?"

This is far more than your typical espionage thriller. This is brilliant writing combined with moral complexities where the lines between good and bad are always blurred. This is first-rate characterizations combined with extreme tension and intrigue. It's a very unique and tragic love triangle of sorts. This is not le Carré standing up on his soapbox and forcing his political views on us. Rather, we are given the opportunity to look at the human element on both sides of an issue. It’s relevant even today, almost forty years since its publication. Without a doubt, it is a literary novel of the highest caliber. I’m not sure I’ll watch the movie adaptation starring Diane Keaton, but I am super eager to check out the BBC miniseries production released in 2018.

Update 1/31/2020: The BBC miniseries with Florence Pugh, Alexander Skarsgård, and Michael Shannon is brilliant!

"… the logic was the fiction, and the fiction was a web that enmeshed everyone who tried to sweep it away." ...more

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Mar 12, 2018 Matt rated it it was amazing

Shelves: terrorism, middle-east-conflict, classic-novels, cold-war

“[W]e want to offer you a job. An acting job…The biggest part you ever had in your life, the most demanding, the most difficult, surely the most dangerous, and surely the most important. And I don’t mean money. You can have money galore, no problem, name your figure…The part we have in view for you combines your talents, Charlie, human and professional. Your wit. Your excellent memory. Your intelligence. Your courage. But also that extra human quality to which I already referred. Your warmth. We ...more

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May 27, 2011 Sara rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: spy-thriller, literary-fiction, favorites, romance

"You want to catch the lion, first you tether the goat." - Misha Gavron

If a good book is one that immerses you in the fictional world it creates and makes you see and feel every moment of the characters lives and actions, then The Little Drummer Girl is a study in what a good book should be. I wondered if I would be swept up in it again as I was when I was young, romantic and impressionable. The answer is a resounding “yes”. I have long counted it as a favorite, unforgettable book, and I am happ "You want to catch the lion, first you tether the goat." - Misha Gavron

If a good book is one that immerses you in the fictional world it creates and makes you see and feel every moment of the characters lives and actions, then The Little Drummer Girl is a study in what a good book should be. I wondered if I would be swept up in it again as I was when I was young, romantic and impressionable. The answer is a resounding “yes”. I have long counted it as a favorite, unforgettable book, and I am happy to say I was right, it is that.

John le Carre does not write one dimensional stories or cliched characters. He is Janus and well able to show you both sides of the coin. He can make you feel that there is no right or wrong, good or bad, only very flawed people trying to fight the demons both inside and outside of themselves.

Charlie, our drummer girl, is an English actress, living the Western life and dabbling in political outrage, but in truth, naive and simple. How she comes to be deeply involved in the Middle East conflict between the Israeli and Palestinian factions is as complicated as the conflict itself, and John le Carre is a masterful writer to pull off this entanglement with all the detail and accuracy that is necessary to make it both believable and spellbinding.

Just as Smiley is not your typical British spy, Charlie is not your typical asset. In the midst of all this hatred, she is motivated by love. She is beyond her depth and she convinces herself that she can handle this by thinking of it as another role she is playing, but this is not a fantasy she can control. And what of Joseph, her handler; what does he feel, how much of this is just a role for him as well?

If I were making a short-list of underappreciated writers, John le Carre would be up at the top. He is one of those writers who can spin a tale that holds you enrapt, while beneath the fascinating story he always has an important issue to address, something worth saying that needs to be said. He is a purveyor of human nature, a soul-searching magician, a trafficker in literary style.

Yes, this one stays in my favorites folder, with all the enthusiasm and love that I felt for it the first time around. Couldn’t ask for more. ...more

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Sep 09, 2009 Rob rated it it was amazing

An amazing novel. I was a le Carre fan coming in, but this book's explorations of identity and morality blew my mind while simultaneously blowing up lots of other stuff. It's a story about Zionists, Palestinians, and bombs. And love and identity and morality. It's complex as hell; the identity stuff is on a PK Dick level, but goes there without drugs. The morality issue may be closer to common, as we are given Palestinians and Zionists and why they are who they are, but le Carre never overtly po ...more

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May 17, 2009 Manny rated it liked it

Shelves: islam-and-arabic, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

I found this novel extremely disturbing, and the movie version starring Diane Keaton even more so. Perhaps it's because I'm half-Jewish, and family discussions regularly circle back to Israeli/Palestinian politics. The basic scenario in the book is that Mossad are concerned about a successful series of bombings carried out against Israeli targets by a Palestinian terrorist group. They want to infiltrate the organization, and recruit a young actress to help them. There are two scenes near the beg ...more

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Apr 01, 2013 mentor&muse rated it it was amazing

John le Carrè’s The Little Drummer Girl is much more than a spy novel. At its heart is a compelling relationship – which just happens to be between an agent and her agent runner (or case officer) amid a fascinating plot to stop a terrorist bomber. But it’s the genius and complexity of the relationship that raises The Little Drummer Girl to heights far above the limits of the spy genre.

An intricate fiction is planned in order to infiltrate the bomber’s network and bring him down. Michel, the bom John le Carrè’s The Little Drummer Girl is much more than a spy novel. At its heart is a compelling relationship – which just happens to be between an agent and her agent runner (or case officer) amid a fascinating plot to stop a terrorist bomber. But it’s the genius and complexity of the relationship that raises The Little Drummer Girl to heights far above the limits of the spy genre.

An intricate fiction is planned in order to infiltrate the bomber’s network and bring him down. Michel, the bomber’s deceased brother, will be used as the access point. Charlie, struggling English actress and ideological seeker, is recruited somewhat against her will to play the part of Michel’s grieving lover. But fabricating a history between the two won’t be easy. Not only must the bomber be convinced of the fictitious love affair, but also Charlie needs to be able to draw upon her memories of Michel and her feelings for him as if they are real.

Words have power, and in this tale we see the power of the spoken word, sound and breath, to summon, to establish memory where there is none. Meet Joseph: battle-scarred Israeli hero and “all that a girl adrift could wish for in her savior.” He’s an enigma, a conjuror, both warrior and poet. Standing in for Michel, he manipulates Charlie, even as he’s drawn to her. He walks her through scripted scenes of her imaginary life with Michel, making her go through the motions and say the lines he’s written for her. At first Michel appears only as a cutout, a hallucination. But through the power of words, fiction becomes truth. And Charlie’s lover becomes a chimera: Joseph and Michel superimposed one over the other, shifting in and out of sync, their outlines indistinct.

At the conclusion of the novel we’re so invested in this relationship that we want more. We want to continue beyond the final page, to see Charlie and Joseph heal and come into focus.

The Little Drummer Girl deserves a wider audience. I think many readers who don’t enjoy the spy genre probably just overlook it. And a note: don’t expect it to be about politics. le Carrè deftly avoids politics and manages beautifully to embrace characters on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Roman Clodia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm having a hard time untangling my responses to this novel: part of me dislikes the dismissive way in which le Carré's female protagonist is portrayed: her childish 'I'm a rebel, me' politics, her self-absorption, her naivety, her arch dialogue: in le Carré's defence, I guess, we have to remember this was first published in 1983 and can't help but be shaped by the gender politics of the time.

I was also slightly amused that this is essentially a 'caper' plot, albeit more serious than that label I'm having a hard time untangling my responses to this novel: part of me dislikes the dismissive way in which le Carré's female protagonist is portrayed: her childish 'I'm a rebel, me' politics, her self-absorption, her naivety, her arch dialogue: in le Carré's defence, I guess, we have to remember this was first published in 1983 and can't help but be shaped by the gender politics of the time.

I was also slightly amused that this is essentially a 'caper' plot, albeit more serious than that label frequently signifies. The civilian trained up by the security services, here Mossad, to infiltrate a terrorist cell is a mainstay of many commercial thrillers and always requires a certain level of suspension of disbelief - I particularly found it hard to swallow Charlie going from small-time actress to being able to resist two-day interrogation by hard-core Palestinian fighters in the snap of a finger.

Yet, for all that, this is a powerful book, all the more so for the slow build up of detail that so many of the negative reviews complain about. It's true, this doesn't have the immediacy and grab of so many of the Smiley novels and there were times when I was tempted to speed-read (especially since I started but abandoned the recent BBC production). With hindsight, though, it's the very slowness that hooks us, giving the story a depth and labyrinthine feel that comes from the accumulation of small moments, intricate details that may or not be important.

At the heart of the book is the tragic impasse that still exists in the Middle East (though with a renewed and heated resonance in 2019). The section set in Lebanon is especially powerful as Charlie has her rather easily-ingested and shallow views challenged in all directions. We do, too, as acts of terrifying violence are committed on both sides of the divide, as refugee camps are bombed, as children watch their father blown up by mines, as an Israeli moderate speaking out for a Palestinian homeland becomes, counter-intuitively, a target.

It's this sort of doubleness that gives rise to the most interesting part of the book: the way that Joseph/Michel, Israeli hero and Palestinian fighter, become layered onto the same person - and Charlie's relationship(s) to both men. While, ostensibly, one is 'real' and the other merely the product of acting, the whole thrust of the book questions that, not least with the continued repetition of the phrase 'theatre of the real'. Is 'Joseph' any more real than his Michel? Does Charlie's love story with him have any more foundation than the one he creates for her with Michel? What does that imply for the ending: (view spoiler)

So this is slow and requires patience from its readers, with a sudden speed up of the plot towards the last 25% or so - but then this isn't trying to be an airport thriller and we need to adjust our expectations accordingly. It's the psyches of the combatants on both side of a seemingly unbridgeable divide that seem to be le Carré's real focus of interest: the instability of the deeply and irreparably wounded which leapfrogs any easy panacea of 'justice'.

...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Tom Marcinko rated it it was amazing

I have a vague memory of a column by George Will, back when I used to read him, about this 1983 novel. If memory serves, Will was upset that le Carré depicts the Palestinians as having a point of view, or maybe of just acknowledging that they exist. He likened the book to a Harlequin romance. He hated the dust jacket, and the typeface.

I don’t like any of the choices we’re given in the Middle East: choose one side or another, or say “a plague on both your houses,” or ignore it altogether. Le Car ...more

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Nov 07, 2018 Patricia Williams added it · review of another edition

I do not want to rate this book because I've given up on reading it and I know this author is greatly admired and read all over the world. I just could not get into the book and am moving on. ...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Darwin8u rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: aere-perennius, 2012

What happens when a woman loves two righteous men? Two feuding nations? A woman who is struggling with both her inner and outer world; her inner and outer dialogue. ''The Little Drummer Girl'' is the second best spy novel I've ever read, but I NEVER give first prizes. Charlie is a woman who incubates in the womb of her mind the warring ideals and pitiful trails of two imperfect people(s). We all have both angels and devils in our nature and the irony is that when we try to invent one, we end up ...more

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Jun 02, 2018 Quirkyreader rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In this story LeCarre takes us on a trip into the schizophrenic world of creating legends and running spies.

It was set during the early 1980's when terrorist bombings had become common place in Europe. And there were characters in this story that reminded me of the BaderMinehoff(sp?) Group.

Even though some of the elements in this story are dated, it is still a powerful novel.

And after a spate of reading not so great Le Carre novels, this one was very refreshing. ...more

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Sep 29, 2008 Annet rated it really liked it

Shelves: have-to-read-again, dark

Remember all of the sudden I really loved this book, the story, the woman lead player, the suspense, in short, great book!

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Mar 26, 2018 Annette rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Brilliant. Unputdownable. One of his best novels and his female main protagonist is brilliantly realised. In awe of the writing craft displayed in this novel. Le Carre's skill at weaving backstory with a love story with a gripping political thriller is unique. Every time I read him I'm reminded again that he is a real novelist.

Those saying it is slow are idiots and clearly have short attention spans and are of low intellectual ability - try one of those gaming game thingys where everyone gets k ...more

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Nov 16, 2020 Left Coast Justin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: spies

This was actually one of the most suspenseful and exciting of Le Carre's books, but it took a long time to get to the exciting part, which means it doesn't quite land on my shelf of favorites. This is also one of the most plot-driven of Le Carre's works, and that makes it rather difficult to review without spoiling.

I was happy embarking on this journey, because it not only started in my old hometown, but in the very neighborhood of the town I lived in so happily. Then -- ooops -- a bomb went of This was actually one of the most suspenseful and exciting of Le Carre's books, but it took a long time to get to the exciting part, which means it doesn't quite land on my shelf of favorites. This is also one of the most plot-driven of Le Carre's works, and that makes it rather difficult to review without spoiling.

I was happy embarking on this journey, because it not only started in my old hometown, but in the very neighborhood of the town I lived in so happily. Then -- ooops -- a bomb went off. The rest of the book described the attempt to catch the person(s) who did it. But what the book really is, is one hot mess of a love story between two very troubled people.

The next stage of the book described the recruitment of the titular Drummer Girl, a low-self-esteem creature who gains her strength from acting. This is a very long book, and we spend a lot of time with three characters in particular -- the actress, the mastermind and the soldier.

There is a severe culture clash between this actress, trained in sensitivity, in the arts, in understanding people, and the mastermind, who "as some men may be seen to be in love, so Schulmann was possessed by a deep and awesome hatred." One senses that this is not going to end well. The beginning and the end of the book are set in Germany, and one of the principals, while flying from Munich to Berlin, notes that "Somewhere in that blackness was the railway line which had brought the goods train on its slow journey from the East; somewhere the very siding where it had parked for five nights and six days in the dead of winter to make way for the military transports that mattered so much more, while [he] and his mother, and the hundred and eighteen other Jews who were crammed into their truck, ate the snow and froze, most of them to death."

But this book isn't about the despicable events of WWII, but rather the clashes that arose from Zionism, i.e. the establishment of the Jewish state in the Middle East, on lands that had previously belonged to the Palestinians. (An excellent historical perspective in all this is given in Scott Anderson's book.).

The first half of the book dragged, and honestly, I fell asleep numerous times trying to force my way through it. This book was set in the 1970's, and if this story is indication, I really missed the party -- our heroine, finding herself with her cast in Greece, slept with all of the heterosexual members of the cast, and without thinking too hard about it, I remember four additional men in the book. I am not judgemental about this, but it just seems odd to somebody growing up in the post-AIDS era. The problem with all this is that the recruitment process took forever, despite the fact that "the secret world is of itself attractive." While I enjoy watching actors practice their art onstage, I find hanging out with them after hours somewhat wearying, and that's how I felt about the first half of this book.

Our heroine is somebody whose politics are strongly influenced by the men she interacts with. Had the other party in this conflict gotten to her first, the outcome could have been completely different. (Well, let's be honest: This is a book about Israelis and Palestinians, and it doesn't seem the the outcome is going to change any time soon.) There were some nice moments in this section, though. -- I like a description of the soldier when our lady leaned against him: "His shoulder was as hard as a cliff and about as intimate".

Finally, though, things start to happen, and to my great surprise, the tension was really racheted up. Le Carre's books are mostly about men pondering events happening far away, but in this case we're in the middle of the action, and he writes this really well. Our actress heroine is well aware that any mistake she makes can cost her life, and the sickening sense of dread that accompanies some of these scenes is deeply uncomfortable reading (as intended). This is aside from the moral dread of a woman who approaches the world heart first, but is surrounded by violent and hard men and women who simply want to get the job done.

The ending was wonderful. Well worth a read, but you may have to push yourself past the halfway point. ...more

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Apr 29, 2015 Selina Kyle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorite-characters, military, real-life-in-fiction, revenge, espionage

There is no fear like it. Your courage will be like money. You will spend and spend, and one night you will look in your pockets and you'll be bankrupt and that is when the real courage begins.

This book is possibly the most complex le Carré novel I've read to date. This is the story of Charmian ("Charlie" to her friends, though she doesn't keep them for long). She's a talented British actress who, like many other talented artists, is penniless and jobless. She follows her abusive boyfriend from ...more

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Jun 15, 2015 Jack rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, spies-and-thrillers, better-than-the-movie

Another LeCarre masterpiece, in my judgment, right up there with the best of the Smiley/Circus series. Given the broad spectrum of characters here (from Israeli intelligence agents to young members of the '70s counterculture to Arab guerrillas to European Marxist revolutionaries -- all of whom are worlds apart from Smiley's British "espiocrats"), I predict that this will go down as LeCarre's most ambitious project. Also, LeCarre somehow manages to create truly chilling scenes that take place in ...more

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Dec 26, 2019 Glen rated it liked it

Shelves: espionage

Dreary spy novel about the hunt for a mad bomber.

I've tried Le Carre before, but I think he just isn't for me. ...more

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Oct 27, 2018 Laura rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommended to Laura by: Bettie

Shelves: e-books, viciados-em-livros, espionage, read-2018, fiction-20th-century, film-only, british-literature

Germany, 1979. When a bomb goes off in the diplomatic quarter of Bonn, senior Israeli intelligence agent Martin Kurtz flies in to investigate. A series of similarly deadly attacks targeting prominent Jewish figures across Europe have been carried out in recent weeks, and Kurtz now believes there is a Palestinian revolutionary at the heart of this pattern. Kurtz sets in motion a brilliant and elaborate plan to catch the kingpin, Khalil.

Meanwhile in London, passionate young actress Charlie is trea ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Kim Kaso rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 5000-books-lor2018

I read this book the first time when it first came out, I read it at least two more times before this read, and I’ve watched the movie with Diane Keaton, Klaus Kinski , & the marvelous Sami Frey many times. I did this re-read before watching the recent mini-series, which was well done but felt less romantic than the cinematic version.

I am a huge Le Carré fan, I started with The Spy Who Came in from the Cold which was something I read in junior high and came to appreciate in re-reads, but I fell ...more

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Nov 01, 2018 Raven rated it liked it · review of another edition

The Little Drummer Girl is a page-turning story of love and loyalty set against the backdrop of the Middle East conflict, and I found it significantly different in tone and composition to the George Smiley series, and his other spy novels generally, which I am more familiar with. I think its no exaggeration to say that Charlie goes on an emotionally and physically draining journey during the course of this book, quickly maturing from an outspoken, incredibly dislikeable, and shockingly naïve you ...more

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Jul 29, 2008 Maureen rated it liked it

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: espionage, novel

A young actress, Charlie, is recruited by an Israeli spymaster, Martin Kurtz, to try to locate a Palestinian terrorist by the name of Kahlil, who zeroes in on Jewish targets, mostly in Germany. Internal conflicts arise for Charlie, whose character is probably loosely based upon Vanessa Redgrave, because she is an anti-Zionist working for Israelis. She falls in love with her case officer, who closely resembles Kahlil's brother. As the plot spirals inward, the pressures on Charlie consistently inc ...more

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Mar 20, 2019 Marty Fried rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: espionage, audiobooks

I think I would have enjoyed this more if it were not an audiobook, mainly because it was a little hard to follow, but I think I did OK by going back a few times.

If you're looking for a typical spy novel, you'll probably be disappointed. This had a bit in common with the Gabriel Allon series by Daniel Silva, but not a lot. However, having read a lot of the Silva novels, I think it helped me follow the action a little better.

The hardest part of following this book is the fact that Charlie, the "g ...more

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Feb 23, 2015 Mike rated it it was amazing

Astonishing. It literally starts with a bang (Palestinian terrorists set off a bomb in Germany), but then Le Carre takes his wonderful sweet time setting up the plot. The recruitment and training of a young British actress by Israeli counterintelligence takes up two-thirds of the book. Her actual mission kept me on the edge of my seat for the final wrenching 150 pages. This 1983 book was Le Carre's first to leave Smiley behind and not center around British intelligence, and it's far and away one ...more

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Aug 28, 2014 Stephen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: thrillers, favorites-fiction

His best, and for me that's saying a lot. Intricate, atmospheric, penetrating and going to a gripping climax. The love interest in The Night Manager is less manipulative, and I like that book better as a romp, but Drummer Girl is exceptional in its politics and its Shakespearian psychology. ...more

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Sep 14, 2014 N. Jr. rated it it was amazing

One of his best. I enjoyed this book on many levels. Le Carre does a good job in developing the character of Charlie, a cut-rate actress with radical left leanings suffering from low self-esteem, who is recruited as a mole to ferret out a terrorist bomber. The Mossad operatives are also well portrayed as cold and vengeful.

Events in the story are disturbingly realistic showing the ruthlessness required for the counter-terrorist game. The author spent a lot of time researching this book in Lebanon ...more

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Oct 08, 2014 Thomas Strömquist rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In his genre he's hard to beat. So if you want to read a suspenseful spy thriller and are willing to put in some effort (a bit slow and thorough storytelling and often complicated (sub)plots) then you can't go wrong with this one. ...more

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Feb 06, 2020 Alice rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: spies

Picked up soon after watching the TV series, which I found beautifully shot but hard to follow. I can see why this one's regarded as a problematic novel; I'm glad he took a stab at writing a female lead, because women are thin on the ground in his books, but I'm never quite convinced by Charlie's character. I also found the first and last chapters a little too flippant given the grimness of the subject matter. There's cynical and then there's plain glib. ...more

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Oct 29, 2018 David Beeson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

‘Some interrogations are conducted in order to elicit truth, others to elicit lies. Kurtz wanted lies.’

Whenever I dip into The Little Drummer, and I dip into it frequently, I tend to gravitate to the pivotal scene of the interrogation, between the time-worn Israeli spymaster Kurtz – the weather-beaten warrior who had once been a little boy escaping the Holocaust from Central Europe – and Charlie, the English actress whose ‘ragbag of […] vague leftwing principles’ and radical past made her an ide ‘Some interrogations are conducted in order to elicit truth, others to elicit lies. Kurtz wanted lies.’

Whenever I dip into The Little Drummer, and I dip into it frequently, I tend to gravitate to the pivotal scene of the interrogation, between the time-worn Israeli spymaster Kurtz – the weather-beaten warrior who had once been a little boy escaping the Holocaust from Central Europe – and Charlie, the English actress whose ‘ragbag of […] vague leftwing principles’ and radical past made her an ideal candidate to plant inside a Palestinian terrorist group.

Kurtz and Charlie are two of the post potent characters I have met not just in spy fiction, not just in Le Carré, but in fiction generally. Kurtz, locked in struggle with a legion of demons and forever fighting against the pressure of far too little time, is a compelling and highly believable figure it’s easy to warm to. Charlie, based on Le Carré’s half-sister, has her own torments and is a fundamentally decent confused young woman, drawn into a painful game of deception and betrayal.

Behind them is a panoply of other intriguing characters. Dr Alexis, the venial, witty, German policeman of uncertain principle; ‘Joseph’ the hero of too many of Israel’s wars, carrying the scars of conflict around his body: ‘the burn marks, I would say, I got them sitting in a tank. The bulletholes from getting out of it’; Litvak, Kurtz’s right-hand man, a smouldering bundle of fury seeking retribution against all the tormentors of Jewry down the ages. Why, there’s even Deputy Commander Picton, of the British police, a touch too brutal, a touch too fond of the bottle, but a powerful and effective counter-insurgency professional, with shadows in his past too.

Shadows, indeed, stalk everyone. And not just on the side of the Israelis. One of the most powerful aspects of this novel is Le Carré’s treatment of both sides with sympathy, so that we are, like Charlie herself, by no means convinced that the Palestinians are wholly wrong, or Kurtz’s team entirely justified. Fatmeh, sister of Kurtz’s terrorist target, is a tragic figure, tending to her refugee people and carrying the burden of far too much sorrow. It’s hard to avoid feeling even for Tayeh, leader of the terrorist group: he’s sinister and threatening but he has suffered far more than any man should.

Around this set of exceptional characters, Le Carré uses the time-honoured device of a hunt narrative to build a tense and suspense-filled tale that holds our attention and drives us on from page to page.

But as well as being a gripping story, The Little Drummer Girl also provides rich insights into a complex set of problems. Anyone who reads his autobiographical vignettes in The Pigeon Tunnel will know the extent of the research Le Carré undertook for the novel – including dancing with Yasser Arafat and a visit to a Bader-Meinhof group member in an Israeli desert gaol – and that makes the book not just an excellent story with vivid characters but a remarkable exploration of one of the most intractable difficulties the world faces in our times. Le Carré’s only venture into the maelstrom of the Middle East provides an invaluable window into that world.

The whole is, as always, sustained by the excellent writing of a master of the English language. I’ll end with one of many favourite touches in a book full of them: the bilious policeman Commander Picton, finishing a cigarette:

… he stubbed out his cigarette very violently, holding it down long after it had ceased to struggle.

What a great illustration of that key principle of fine writing: showing rather than telling.
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About John le Carré

John le Carré

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John le Carré, the pseudonym of David John Moore Cornwell (born 19 October 1931 in Poole, Dorset, England), was an English author of espionage novels. Le Carré had resided in St Buryan, Cornwall, Great Britain, for more than 40 years, where he owned a mile of cliff close to Land's End. ...more

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“Everyone who is not happy must be shot.” — 30 likes

“What would it be like really and absolutely to believe? (...) To know, really and absolutely know, that there's a Divine Being not set in time or space who reads your thoughts better than you ever did, and probably before you even have them? To believe that God sends you to war, God bends the path of bullets, decides which of his children will die, or have their legs blown off, or make a few hundred million on Wall Street, depending on today's Grand Design? (ch. 14)” — 10 likes

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