T h e L ittle D r u m m e r G ir l
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Following the publication in 1980 of Smiley's People, the third volume of his
saga regarding British Secret Service operative George Smiley and his Russian
opposite Karla, le Carre visited Israel, Lebanon, and Palestinian camps at
Rashidiyeh, Nabatiyeh, and Sidon. After his investigations, le Carre proclaimed,
“We have neglected entirely the Palestinian case.” He wanted to use popular fic
tion to place a “human face on the Palestinians,” challenging as unfair Golda Meir’s
assertion that the Palestinians did not exist.3
Also seeking to expand his work by focusing upon a female character, le Carre
wrote The Little Drummer Girl. The plot of the novel is complicated and even
unrealistic according to some critics. Charlie, an English repertoire actress with
leftist political sympathies, is recruited by Israeli intelligence to infiltrate a Pales
tinian terrorist ring. Playing upon her personal, professional, and political insecu
rities, the Israeli operatives offer Charlie a sense of family and the part of a lifetime
in the “theater of the real.” Her ill-defined political allegiances are no match for the
seduction enacted by Joseph, an Israeli war hero whose real name is Gadi Becker.
In an elaborate charade orchestrated by the Israelis, Charlie is to portray the lover
of a young Palestinian terrorist Michel, whom the Israelis have captured and even
tually kill. Charlie’s impersonation eventually leads her into Lebanon’s Palestin
ian camps. She is dispatched upon a terrorist mission by the Palestinians and even
tually ends up in the bed of Michel’s brother Khalil, who is the terrorist master
mind sought by the Israeli operatives. When Khalil discovers Charlie’s treachery,
Joseph (Becker) saves her life by gunning down the terrorist. Charlie and Joseph,
who has become increasingly estranged from his nation’s foreign policy, both feel
betrayed and seek to forge a human relationship within a corrupt and de 6V