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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Dec 2007, 288 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2009, 288 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Amy Reading
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A former CIA case officer’s novel about two embattled spies who go to extraordinary lengths to keep their informants out of harm’s way, published as vetted by the agency itself.
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.
1
Several months before I was scheduled to leave for , I was assigned
to the office in
. In my case, I was
shipping out in August, so I would be in for most of the summer.
It was a busy time in , but the officers running country desks
liked to handle their own work. They’d give me an occasional name
trace to run, or have me coordinate a cable with another division. But
I wasn’t busy. I’d read the morning traffic—cables from the stations
in , and what ever traffic was
coming in. I’d stop by my friends’ offices throughout the building or
meet them for coffee in the cafeteria. And one or two days a week, I’d
take care of various tasks I had to accomplish before going abroad,
like &...
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...continued
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(Reviewed by Amy Reading).
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 noveldid 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 deletions to Weisberg's own. Thus it is impossible to know who deleted a given passage or why, making it seem as if the book has been jointly authored in the negative.
An ...
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