Reviews

The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré

lanceschaubert's review against another edition

5.0

Had I lived during the time of Dostoevsky and witnessed him publishing Crime and Punishment, I imagine it would have felt, in part, like witnessing the publication of The Little Drummer Girl. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in world politics, Arab culture, Jewish culture, German culture, or English culture.

Or anyone who ever acted.

Or watched a spy film.

Or lusted.

Yeah, that's most everyone. Go read it.

beefmaster's review against another edition

5.0

As perfect as novels come

thisisstephenbetts's review against another edition

5.0

The plot revolves around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than Le Carré's familiar milieu of the cold war. That said, he does kinda fit his plot into his familiar cold war devices - and this is essentially a story of espionage. This initially caused me a few reservations, as I'd expected it to be less like his previous novels than it appeared on first flush - there's an analogue for Smiley, and even for his occassional cadre of misfits; he returns again to England-on-the-wane than. But despite the superficial similarities - his tradecraft as he might himself have it - this book definitely moves beyond Le Carré's previous works, and is better for it. He manages to pull off an international setting without the histrionics of The Honourable Schoolboy. On the conflict itself, Le Carré is at pains to be even-handed - showing people of all stripes on all sides - though it is very clear that he believes that horrors have been committed against innocent Palestinians. In part this 'balances' the Palestinian villains of the piece, though that would be an over-simplification of Le Carré's nuanced portayal.

I thought the writing was excellent too - skillfully edging the narrative voice into the subjective reality of the protagonist just enough to give an impression of their mindset and smear our objective clarity, without it becoming too tricksy or distracting.

Actually not a bad introductory Le Carré I think.

joshtenet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

patrickwadden's review against another edition

3.0

this is a good book as it shows that liberals are ideologically bankrupt and are a vague collection of slight progressive ideas squeaked dimly into the void and stacked up only so high and so clumsily that they fall the second they are kidnapped and interrogated ruthlessly by a foreign military agency.

don't be a liberal. Leftist is bestist <3

emecegil's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

biedermeier_margo's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

sandin954's review against another edition

5.0

As always with le Carré, this was well written and plotted though perhaps a bit slow paced at times. I found the characters fascinating and the storyline totally absorbing. Listened to the audio version which was well read by Michael Jayston.

sandin954's review against another edition

5.0

As always with le Carré, this was well written and plotted though perhaps a bit slow paced at times. I found the characters fascinating and the storyline totally absorbing. Listened to the audio version which was well read by Michael Jayston.

daisycutter's review against another edition

5.0

Peak le Carre. The moral ambiguity, the bleak setting, the spycraft... I never get sick of this guy. The Smiley books are great in their own way, but the new characters in TLDG make for a refreshing change of pace.