An Ordinary Spy: Summary and book reviews of An Ordinary Spy by Joseph Weisberg, plus links to an excerpt from An Ordinary Spy and a biography of Joseph Weisberg.
An Ordinary Spy A Novel
by Joseph Weisberg
Hardcover: Dec 2007,
288 pages.
Paperback: Jan 2009,
288 pages.
Mark Ruttenberg may not be fit for the
CIA. Early in his tenure with the agency, he learns about a former operative,
Bobby Goldstein, and becomes curious about the case that led to his termination.
Before he can get to the bottom of what happened, however, he's shipped off to
, where he hobnobs with foreign diplomats and informants, who have
access to information and contacts like the powerful General
, in the hopes of recruiting them as agents. But, when he falls for
the wrong woman, he's quickly sent back to , with nothing to show for
his secretive work but a mysterious postcard with an unknown address on it. Who
sent the postcard, and where is it supposed to lead him? Could this all be an
ops test, with Mark's future hanging in the balance? Soon, he'll have to decide
if righting an old wrong is worth taking a terrible and very personal risk.
An Ordinary Spy is deeply engrossing and gratifying, first for the details of spycraft, but lastingly for the contortions to which it puts the reader's mind as it wends its way though its complex moral questions. (Reviewed by Amy Reading).
The Washington Post - Patrick Anderson
[A]n odd, well-written and interesting novel, a low-key corrective to all the razzle-dazzle spy tales we've read.
The New York Times - Mark Costello
Among its other satisfactions, this book is surely the best portrait of the working C.I.A. we have had in many years.
New York Times - Mark Costello
Among its other satisfactions, this book is surely the best portrait of the working C.I.A. we have had in many years.
Kirkus Reviews
In a stab at verisimilitude, large chunks of the novel's text are blacked out, a technique that eventually becomes an irritating stylistic tic on the part of Weisberg. More slack than taut and disappointingly thin in characterization.
Publishers Weekly
Given the quantity of blacked-out material, some readers may be more annoyed than intrigued as they puzzle over the missing information.
Booklist - Thomas Gaughan
There’s no Great Game, no derring-do, and the stresses of the work seem mostly imposed by the culture of the CIA. For those willing to contemplate the anti-Bond view of spying, this is definitely a book to read.
Though the memo at the
end of the novel from
the CIA Publications
Review Board is
addressed to the novel's
protagonist, Mark
Ruttenberg, thus
revealing the redactions
(blanked out text) as a
fictional device to
create an aura of
authenticity, the novel
did actually pass
by the PRB—six times.
Weisberg preemptively
redacted his own work
for security reasons as
well as literary ones,
but was obligated to
submit it to the PRB
before even seeking a
book contract. Each
subsequent round of
editing required another
round of approval from
the PRB, though they
only added a few...
Alec Milius is young, smart, and ambitious. He also has a talent for deception. He is working in a dead-end job when a chance encounter leads him to MI6, the elite British Secret Intelligence Service, handing him an opportunity to play center-stage in a dangerous game of espionage.
In his new line of work, Alec finds that the difference...
An epic tale of loyalty and betrayal set in the West Berlin of the 1960s through to the present day of terrorism and new alliances.
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Kirkus Reviews
