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Popular Culture Review
Let us pray that le Carre is correct about a new sense of morality developing in
the West, fostering a more equitable division of the world’s wealth and resources.
For without such a new moral paradigm it seems that we are wedded to the per
petuation of violence which characterizes the pages of The Little Drummer Girl
and continues to plague the headlines of our morning newspapers as we move
further into the new millennium.
Sandia Preparatory School
Ron Briley
Notes
1. John le Carrd, “A War We Cannot Win,” The Nation, 19 November 2001, 15-17.
2. Peter Lewis, John le Carre (New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing Co., 1985), 209.
3. Melvyn Bragg, “The Little Drummer Girl: An Interview with John le Carrd,” in Alan Bold, ed., The
Quest fo r le Carre (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988), 129-143; and Melvyn Bragg, “A Talk with
John le Carrd,” The New York Times Book Review, 13 March 1983, 1 and 23. In these interviews, le
Carrd states that the title character Charlie is based upon his sister Charlotte rather than actress Vanessa
Redgrave, whose sympathies for the Palestinian Liberation Organization produced protest in the United
States and resulted in cancellation of her appearance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. For
Redgrave’s story see: “Blacklist 1984,” The Nation, 24 November 1984, 539-540.
4. John le Carrd, The Little Drummer Girl (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1983), foreword.
5. For a discussion which emphasizes the pro-Israeli structure of the novel’s opening see: David
Monaghan, The Novels o f John le Carre: The Art o f Survival (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1985), 176179.
6. Le Carrd, Little Drummer Girl, 182-187.
7. Ibid., 324-348, and 358-368.
8. Ibid., 426.
9. Walter Laqueur, “Le Carry’s Fantasies,” Commentary, June 1983,62-67; Rael Jean Isaac and Erich
Isaac, “Tinny Drum,” Chronicles o f Culture 7(August 1983): 24-27; and David Pryce-Jones, “A
Demonological Fiction,” The New Republic, 18 April 1983, 27-30.
10. Bragg, “An Interview with John le Carrd,” 131-133.
11. John le Carrd, “Memories of a Vanished Land,” The Observer, 13 June 1982,10; and le Carrd, “The
Betrayal,” The Observer Review, 3 July 1983, 23-24. For a discussion of le Cairo’s journalism see:
Lewis, John le Carre 185-189.
12. John Wyver, “Fiction,” City Limits, April 1983,22; and Marghanita Laski, “Oh, the Brave Music,”
The Listener, 21 April 1983, 27-28.
13. William F. Buckley, Jr., ‘Terror and a Woman,” The New York Times Book Review, 13 March 1983,
1 and 23; Martin Cruz Smith, “Season of Spies,” Esquire, April 1983, 106-107; Mark Abley, “John le
Carry’s Trail of Terror,” Maclean's Magazine, 1 March 1983, 47-52; and James Wolcott, The Secret
Shores,” The New York Review o f Books, 14 April 1983, 19-21.
14. Eric Homberger, John le Carre (New York: Methuen), 89-90.
15. Rex Reed, “Little Drummer Girl,” New York Post, 19 October 1984,43; and David Edelstein, “Little
Drummer Girl,” The Village Voice, 30 October 1984, 72.
16. Richard Grenier, ‘Treason Chic,” Commentary, Jan uary 1985, 61-65.
17. David Sterritt, “Little Drummer Girl,” The Christian Science Monitor, 29 October 1984,24; Vincent
Canby, “Little Drummer Girl, Based on le Can'd Novel,” The New York Times, 19 October 1984, C18;
and Stanley Kauffmann, “The Tiny Drummer Girl,” The New Republic, 5 November 1984, 25-26.
18. Armond White, “Little Drummer G irl” Films in Review, January 1985, 48; and David Denby,
“Little Drummer Girl,” New York, 29 October 1984, 78.
19. Richard Bernstein, “An Ugly Rumor or an Ugly Truth,” The New York Times, 4 August 2002,4:14.
20. Elizabeth Rubin, ‘T he Most Wanted Palestinian,” The New York Times Magazine, 30 June 2002,26-