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A review by oedipa_maas
The Little Drummer Girl by John le Carré
2.0
A more literary thriller. It took time to read and although some parts grew tedious, I appreciated the descriptions le Carre gave of the subtle actions, gestures, and facial expressions of the characters that reveal so much of their motivations.
As plots go, it was a bit muddled; I followed along hoping for some clue as to what Charlie was actually going to be doing with the Palestinians, and it kind of made sense towards the end.
But character-wise, blech. Charlie got pretty clingy and weak at the end, which went against her character, especially for someone who's been in a war-torn camp and a terrorist training facility. At the near-end, after performing quite kick-assly, she basically says, "Ohhhh please don't make me go back to him he wants to fuck meeeee and I just wanna stay with yoooou even though I don't even know whyyyy." Ugh. Why cop out at the last minute, le Carre? Couldn't follow through with a strong female character? And then you had to have her call herself a whore? Multiple times? And beg to stay with the guy who tricked her into the whole thing to begin with?
Come to think of it, I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I did. I guess I wanted to like Charlie since there are few female leads in spy/thriller novels, but she wasn't written consistently enough. We don't get to see her thoughts enough to explain why her actions and desires fluctuate so wildly.
Meh. I'm leaving this book in the lobby of the hotel I'm at.
As plots go, it was a bit muddled; I followed along hoping for some clue as to what Charlie was actually going to be doing with the Palestinians, and it kind of made sense towards the end.
But character-wise, blech. Charlie got pretty clingy and weak at the end, which went against her character, especially for someone who's been in a war-torn camp and a terrorist training facility. At the near-end, after performing quite kick-assly, she basically says, "Ohhhh please don't make me go back to him he wants to fuck meeeee and I just wanna stay with yoooou even though I don't even know whyyyy." Ugh. Why cop out at the last minute, le Carre? Couldn't follow through with a strong female character? And then you had to have her call herself a whore? Multiple times? And beg to stay with the guy who tricked her into the whole thing to begin with?
Come to think of it, I didn't really enjoy this as much as I thought I did. I guess I wanted to like Charlie since there are few female leads in spy/thriller novels, but she wasn't written consistently enough. We don't get to see her thoughts enough to explain why her actions and desires fluctuate so wildly.
Meh. I'm leaving this book in the lobby of the hotel I'm at.