An Ordinary Spy
by Joseph Weisberg
288 pages
(2008, Bloomsbury USA)

Reviews

Booklist
November 1, 2007
by Thomas Gaughan

Many spy novels have promised to "reinvent" the genre, usually by upping the literary ante. An Ordinary Spy takes a different tack. It’s the story of a newly minted CIA officer’s first foreign assignment. Searching for people he can turn into intelligence "assets," he falls in love with a foreigner and is soon discharged and sent home. It’s also the story of another young agent, who was also sent home. Their paths are made to cross in the U.S. via anonymous postcards. Weisberg, a former CIA officer, employs redaction as a literary device. Its effect is to strip the novel of any sense of place beyond the knowledge that the foreign station is very hot, and the native food is spicy. The story also focuses on the quotidian lives of spies: following agency protocols, attending conferences and embassy receptions to troll for assets, practicing tradecraft, attending staff meetings. 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.