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

Reviews

Washington Times
"Multiple Layers of Mystery, Intrigue"
January 6, 2008
by John Weisman

Spies, I am convinced, exist in a different universe from the rest of us. What it comes down to is that spies see things differently. They have been blessed — or cursed — with a second sight that is the result of tradecraft training and the quasi-paranoia of operating in a professional environment in which everything you say and everything you do is filtered through the prisms of cover for status, cover for action and plausible deniability.

To the spy, parks aren't places for relaxing walks or lovers' trysts, but potential dead drop and letterbox locations, or segments on those planned, timed courses known as surveillance detection routes, or SDRs, during which you give yourself the opportunity to spot hostile surveillance.

When you spy, you don't make friends so much as you cultivate potential sources. You "get close" in order to "elicit information" that will allow you to determine whether your contact is "suitable for development."

This alternate universe of smoke and mirrors, of denial and deception, is the universe occupied by Mark Ruttenberg, the protagonist and narrator of Joseph Weisberg's jewel of a novel "An Ordinary Spy." As Mr. Weisberg's 2002 novel "10th Grade" was framed as the writing-class journal of a 10th grader named Jeremy Reskin, "Ordinary Spy" is Mark Ruttenberg's first-person memoir of his short and doomed CIA career, complete with redactions allegedly made by CIA's Publication Review Board.

The "riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma" aspect of the book is compounded by the fact that Mr. Weisberg is himself a former CIA officer. And so, the manuscript of "Ordinary Spy" really did have to be submitted to CIA's Publication Review Board. Trying to figure out which redactions are Mr. Weisberg's creations and which are the PRB's makes "Ordinary Spy" a literary Sudoku, leaving readers to fill in the blanks wherever they can. It's a provocative and often bedeviling technique.

Let me demonstrate. The novel is set during Mark Ruttenberg's first overseas tour, in 2002-2003. Ruttenberg is assigned to the country of Xxxxx, where he works under Xxxxxxxx xxxxx, interviewing xxxx xxxxxxxxxx all day and working the diplomatic and expatriate circuits at night as cover for spotting xxxxxxxxx xxxxxx. So, where in the world is Mark Ruttenberg?