A vapid, vaguely radical actor is recruited by noble Israeli spies to infiltrate a Palestinian terrorist cell, populated mostly by dumb people killing Jews in the diaspora, who nevertheless kind of have a point (at least about their grievances). Given the course of the occupation, and the benefit of hindsight, it is hard to take this novel seriously, especially since Palestinian organizations have not targeted the diaspora. It kind of has a quality of shrugging your shoulders and saying "what are you going to do" and seems to be mostly sympathetic to the Israelis and their super capable, cunning, nearly omniscient intelligence services who can surgically target violent militants while maintaining ethical commitments (...yeah, that has not been born out). The psychological trauma inflicted on Charlie, the protagonist, and the double consciousness she experiences, is kind of interesting, but early on in the novel she did not seem that deep to really be bothered by the facade. ( )

A bit more ponderous and less engaging than the Smiley series. Le Carré illustrates his female protagonist well, but the author seems somewhat removed from her, which has a similar effect on the reader. ( )

The plot revolves around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than Le Carré's familiar milieu of the cold war. That said, he does kinda fit his plot into his familiar cold war devices - and this is essentially a story of espionage. This initially caused me a few reservations, as I'd expected it to be less like his previous novels than it appeared on first flush - there's an analogue for Smiley, and even for his occassional cadre of misfits; he returns again to England-on-the-wane than. But despite the superficial similarities - his tradecraft as he might himself have it - this book definitely moves beyond Le Carré's previous works, and is better for it. He manages to pull off an international setting without the histrionics of The Honourable Schoolboy. On the conflict itself, Le Carré is at pains to be even-handed - showing people of all stripes on all sides - though it is very clear that he believes that horrors have been committed against innocent Palestinians. In part this 'balances' the Palestinian villains of the piece, though that would be an over-simplification of Le Carré's nuanced portayal.

I thought the writing was excellent too - skillfully edging the narrative voice into the subjective reality of the protagonist just enough to give an impression of their mindset and smear our objective clarity, without it becoming too tricksy or distracting.

Actually not a bad introductory Le Carré I think.
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Whilst a spy genre novel, the narrative here is quite a different approach and focuses more on the physiological aspects of the main protagonist. The book is slow to get moving (it’s around 500pgs) but the second half is quite engaging.
The story shows how spy’s can be selected but more so, how well double agents can be trained so as to appear genuine. It also shows how they be motivated to work in such a complex and murky world.
Whilst not Le Carre’s best work it is well worth a read for those interested in exploring the spy genre in more depth and breadth
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You expect a certain amount of sexism in a John le Carre novel. Rightly or wrongly, it's usually the kind that you can dismiss by saying, that was just what it was like back then. This is not that kind of novel. The eponymous character is a woman who defines herself by the men who capture her: "She hardly cared. They wanted her. They knew her through and through; they knew her fragility and her plurality. And they still wanted her. They had stolen her in order to rescue her." Or using sex as a metaphor for turning a female agent. Or the fun little jab at feminism: "The only news items she followed with any loyalty concerned a female giant panda at London Zoo who was declining to mate, though feminists insisted it was the male’s fault."

le Carre is so good at describing the psyche of male cold war spies, but his descriptions of his female lead are unconvincing and patronizing ( )