Books : An Ordinary Spy: A Novel

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Author name: Joseph Weisberg

: An Ordinary Spy: A Novel
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN num: 9781596913769
ISBN number: 1596913762
Label: Bloomsbury USA
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 288
Printing Date: December 26, 2007
Publishing house: Bloomsbury USA
Release Date: December 26, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 318794
Studio: Bloomsbury USA



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Editor's Notes and Comments:

Product Description:
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 [REDACTED], where he hobnobs with foreign diplomats and informants, who have acess to [REDACTED] information and contacts like the powerful General [REDACTED], in the hopes of recruiting them as agents. But, when he falls for the wrong woman, he’s quickly sent back to [REDACTED], 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. Published with redacted material throughout the novel, An Ordinary Spy is a riveting and dramatic portrait of modern espionage, filled with suspense, intrigue, and betrayal.




Customer Reviews
User popularity level: out of 5 stars

Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - Half a spy story!
"The final draft of this text was submitted to the Central Intelligence Agency's Publications Review Board. The purpose of the Board's review of the manuscript is to ensure that there is no currently classified material in the text...etc,etc..."

So says the introduction and what followed amounted to blacked out areas of the script throughout the book; even whole pages. I found this neither entertaining nor clever. I had a feeling at the end of being ripped off. If that's the best Weisberg can do, he's off my list of authors.

I want my money back!!


Rated by buyers 3 out of 5 stars - Good Not Great
What started out as a promising, realistic read became--at least for readers familiar with the business--sometimes tedious and unrealistic. The intertwined stories had a genuine ring to them and provided intriguing insights. Weisberg obviously debriefed CIA employees. The stories are told at a good pace and the book is a quick read. The "redactions" became annoying, however, and more extensive than the real thing. Worse, the redactions drained the stories of the rich local colour and flavor that make espionage in a foreign country so fascinating. The disciplinary action was overdone (they don't invest a year of training at a huge expense only to can someone for poor judgment on a very first tour). All in all, an okay read if you want a taste for what it's like.


Rated by buyers 1 out of 5 stars - What a joke
The redacting gimmick is totally unnecessary and is, IMHO, a joke.
It might have been a good read if not for that. As it is, I couldn't get past the very first two pages.


Rated by buyers 2 out of 5 stars - A cute gimmick but only a gimmick
As a former CIA emloyee the author is required to have his novel redacted by the agency censors. And that leads to a cute gimmick in this book. Entire sections, sometimes full pages, are blacked out as though they were the cuts the agency required. It is annoying for the very first few pages but then becomes interesting as you try to figure out what it was the agency was supposed to be cutting. The plot moves along nicely and you do get a sense of the everday banality of the agency's work alongside its life endangering escapades. Most of the characters are nicely drawn and the author's style is straightforward if not very exciting or interesting. BUT, the ending is a mess as though the author didn't really know what to do so he threw everything against the wall and the reader is supposed to accept it and put it all together . The crappy last few chapters were slapped together just to end the damn thing.


Rated by buyers 1 out of 5 stars - Redactions are the Pits
I am sympathetic with the burdens of authors and of retired officers of the CIA, but I never got past the very first 20 pages of Joseph Weisberg's An Ordinary Spy. Thus the one-star rating is not for the content, but because of the (IMO) absolutely unnecessary and intrusive and irritating excisions of content ostensibly made by the CIA. Reading the other reviews, I can see that the readers actually got into and were impressed by the story and not put off by the "redaction."Having suffered through readings of monumentally redacted FOIA documents, I confess that I did not have the necessary patience.

Even a comma provides a signal to the reader to "breathe" or to pause or to disconnect one sentence element from another. Weisberg's blackouts practically coshed the thinking process for me. They could easily have been omitted and the subject matter written in a work-around. The appearance of an official document is probably what the author was after for dramatic effect. It smacks of the phony to me. I'm sorry Weisberg chose to do that and wish him good luck with future projects.
Jonathan Pearce

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