The Little Drummer Girl

The power and depth of John le Carre’s best novels are due to the authenticity of his experiences — and specifically the time le Carre spent in the British Foreign Service before becoming a writer. This background gave him a detailed understanding of Cold War spycraft, which allowed him to write rich psychological profiles of individuals on all sides of the conflict. However, with The Little Drummer Girl, a novel set in the middle of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, le Carre is on less familiar ground and the result is less persuasive. It’s not so much a bad book — le Carre’s plotting and dialogue are once again exceptional — as it is an unremarkable one, especially considering his achievements before and after.