{"id":8275,"date":"2019-12-04T07:47:30","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T12:47:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8275"},"modified":"2019-12-04T07:47:30","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T12:47:30","slug":"spies-x-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8275","title":{"rendered":"Spies X 3"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"spy,<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

****Spy\u2019s Fate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overhearing someone talking about you can be both unsettling and revealing. Arnaldo Correa\u2019s novel, full of observations about the US and its spycraft, from the point of view of a Cuban intelligence operative, is another such revelation. While there\u2019s plenty of ineptitude and bureaucratic blindness on one side or the other, the main character, Carlos Manuel, is an expert at exposing and outwitting it. For a book about a Cuban spy stranded in Miami with a vindictive CIA agent on his trail, there\u2019s quite a bit of humor and a heartwarming romance too. I really enjoyed this book. First published in 2002, it was Correa\u2019s first novel translated into English. Available here from Amazon.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

***Spies<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Fiction River special edition, edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, includes 15 short spy stories by a range of authors. If you think the short story form doesn\u2019t provide enough space to explore the long con of espionage, these tales may change your mind. Rusch says that what links them, besides their topic, is \u201ctheir willingness to look at the world in all its messiness,\u201d without flinching from the corrosive effects of secrets on everyone involved. My favorites included two historicals\u2014the clever and very British \u201cOur Man in Basingstoke\u201d by Sabrina Chase, set during World War II, and \u201cThe Message\u201d by CA Rowland, set during the Civil War\u2014and Ron Collins\u2019s \u201cThe Spy Who Walked into the Cold,\u201d set in racially divided Chicago a few decades back. Get it here.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

****From the Shadows<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spies needn\u2019t be government agents or involved with great sociopolitical questions. Spanish author Juan Jos\u00e9 Mill\u00e1s\u2019s novel (translated by Thomas Bunstead and Daniel Hahn) barely escapes the bedroom. Dami\u00e1n Lobo, a youngish man down on his luck and out of work, entertains himself by carrying on pretend conversations with a famous talk show host. This fantasy so preoccupies him that, in a rash moment, he steals a tie pin he believes the tv star would like. The police chase him through an outdoor market and he ducks inside an old wardrobe on display. Before it seems safe to emerge, the wardrobe is trundled away, loaded onto a truck, and delivered to its new owners\u2019 bedroom, with Lobo still inside. As it turns out, there\u2019s never a good moment to climb out, and through an elaborate ruse, Lobo makes his home there, listening in on all the family\u2019s intimate secrets. An amusing tale that Kirkus Reviews calls \u201cspectacularly bizarre.\u201d Mill\u00e1s has won numerous literary prizes; this short novel is his first published in North America. Loved it! Available from Amazon.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo: David Lytle, creative commons license<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

****Spy\u2019s Fate Overhearing someone talking about you can be both unsettling and revealing. Arnaldo Correa\u2019s novel, full of observations about the US and its spycraft, from the point of view of a Cuban intelligence operative, is another such revelation. While … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5236,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Spies X 3 - three entertaining books featuring the shenanigans of spies--government, corporate, wartime, and bedroom.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[272,366,193,40,126,120],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-drama","category-espionage","category-fiction","category-reading-2","category-short-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/8290703170_2fc5d94baf_z.jpg?fit=612%2C612&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-29t","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8276,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8275\/revisions\/8276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}