one good outcome of "working from home": I've been able to improve upon my normal average of reading four pages a day over morning coffee!
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The Little Drummer Girl
le Carre
this is le Carre's first book not to feature Smiley or the Circus lurking in the background (except for A Small Town in Germany, and the Naive and Sentimental Lover, which were both over a decade ago). He's gotta move on to new characters.
This time we're following the adventures of the Israeli spymaster "Kurtz", and his latest recruit, the fashionably leftwing radical English stage actress Charlie. She starts off favouring the Palestinian cause, but once she is abducted by our heroes, is motivated by the challenge to her acting abilities to work secretly for the Israelis and infiltrate the refugee camps in Lebanon.
(I don't think the words MOSSAD or PLO are ever mentioned once?)
At least I think that's her motivation. We quickly learn Charlie is a habitual liar who believes her own lies, that why she's such a good actress, and she seems to have some void at the core of her identity that acting fulfills. And she already has been persuaded that Radical Action is the Theatre of the Real.
There is a lot of philosphising about the parallels between acting and spying, and as usual there are layers upon layers of deceit.
There is also a lot of globetrotting. Similar to the final 200pgs of the Honourable SchoolBoy. We see a lot of Greece and Germany and the English countryside, and most vivid of all, the lengthy journey through the refugee camps of Lebanon. Despite the heroes of the adventure being Israeli intelligence, it is the plight of the Palestinians le Carre wants us to remember.
SpoilerThis one has a happier ending than most le Carre's, which is a relief because I liked Charlie. At least she wasn't shot down in a hail of bullets on the last page like most le Carre heroes.
But she seems to be psychologically shattered. She has a nervous breakdown while back on stage in smalltown England, then wanders off into the night.
Does she even really see Joseph on the final page, or is that her overactive imagination finally leaving reality behind?