spy

The Mistaken Wife

gwen — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 16:00:00 +0000

Take a trip back to England and France—An American In Paris this is not; rather, this book explores the spying world through eyes similar to Jane Austen—but add the charming characteristics of James Bond, and you arrive at a sweet, adventurous female named Mary Finch. This third book of the Mary Finch trilogy by Rose Melikan captures the depth of espionage and loyalty as well as romance and intrigue in the post-war era. Based in historical events dating to 1797 set in Britain, baring political intrigue and just a hint of romance, The Mistaken Wife gives the reader a chance to experience history, learn about the post-Revolutionary War spy world between America, France, and England and enjoy a love story featuring secret agents of all degrees.

Also rooted in this story is the discovery of an invention designed to possibly aid in future warfare. Both the American and the English spies travel to Paris; both seek the plans to this secret weapon with the intentions of taking them to their home countries.

Written with thoughtful and diligent insight, The Mistaken Wife upholds intrigue with a good amount of incidental beneficence. The culture of the time is well captured, from the descriptions of clothing to the proper manners rampant of the times. The cross of the three cultures is often revisited in the pursuit of the final quest, and this again is well perceived on the page.

Melikan conducts much research to create The Mistaken Wife. An author of academic work, she combines journal accounts, historical papers and the precursors of the military weapon plans to present a most accurate depiction of the story's setting. The resulting novel (in addition to the previous two of the trilogy, The Blackstone Key and The Counterfeit Guest) is well crafted without being too academic or too minor in development. _[The Mistaken Wife](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416560904?ie=UTF8&tag=feminrevie-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1416560904__ is a careful historical novel of a fiery time in the settling of countries. Take some time to read and to indulge (as well as to brush up on the history you forgot you knew) in this novel.

Written by: Carolyn Espe, November 17th 2010

Salt

admin — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Directed by Phillip Noyce

Columbia Pictures

The Cold War may be over (or not, given the recent New York City-based Russian spy scandal), but it’s alive and well in Salt, the new action adventure thriller directed by Phillip Noyce and starring Angelina Jolie. Originally intended to be a vehicle for Tom Cruise (until he bowed out, citing that the role would be too similar to his work in the Mission Impossible franchise), the film was then refashioned for Jolie. Here she plays Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent who is accused by a Russian defector of being a spy. In the wake of the news stories swirling around real-life Russian spy Anna Chapman, the release of this film couldn’t be more timely. Thankfully, it’s also tremendous fun, even if the plot is so outlandish that to truly enjoy it you’ll need to suspend all brain activity once you enter the theater.

One of my problems with Jolie is, unlike other actresses in her age range (e.g. Kate Winslet), she is not a particularly emotive actress; in fact, I often find both her onscreen and off-screen appearances to be utterly glacial, devoid of all warmth and vulnerability. That visceral frigidity works perfectly in Salt, and from a feminist point of view, it’s refreshing to see a woman (who does have a magnetic screen presence–coldness notwithstanding) headline an action adventure thriller.

Whether she’s creating a bomb out of office furniture or executing some insane stunt that has to be seen to be believed, Jolie acts with abandon and brio. She’s terrifically riveting as we follow Salt engaging in all sorts of high- and low-tech derring-do to elude capture. There doesn’t seem to be anything too preposterous for the character to do to get herself out of a bind. Watching Salt stage one mayhem after another is exciting in itself.

The screenplay by Kurt Wimmer is packed with action and dialogue that is equally absorbing and inane. But thanks to the velocity of the film’s direction, coupled with the the star’s investment and charisma, Salt emerges as this summer’s best popcorn film. Judging by the open-ended conclusion of the film, this could become another action franchise. Go see it, but remember to forget about logic when you buy your ticket.

Cross-posted at Films For Women

Written by: Iris Dorbian, July 27th 2010

The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

admin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 09:00:00 +0000

By Jennet Conant

Simon & Schuster

Conant, a former journalist, is a thorough researcher. In this book, she digs into the secret wartime propaganda work that Roald Dahl and his British colleagues were assigned to do to drum up American support for World War II. Many official documents about this secret ring of spies were only declassified in 1998, and many of them remain legally inaccessible—and the author notes the difficulty of having to distinguish who is telling tall tales about their actual work.

That said, her recreation of the events that happened during the last years of WWII and Franklin Delano Roosevelt seem to spring to life from the page. The book's colorful cast of characters reads like a “Who's Who” of the political and celebrity elite of the era, including FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, Ian Fleming, David Ogilvy, Clare Boothe Luce, and Lyndon Johnson, among others. Drawing from correspondence and interviews with dozens of people, Conant vividly recreates England's wartime tension, which coincided with Washington's reckless socializing and split political opinions on how much “help” to give to the British while they were fighting the Nazis.

In the midst of this serious situation are fun moments—tales of buildings that have floors without corresponding elevator buttons, and fake pens that can set off tear gas – where it seems like you're reading a James Bond novel. This is all the more interesting in light of the fact that Fleming would go on to pen those world-famous books, which would later be made into movies.

Conant's attention to detail and brilliant reconstruction of events that happened more than sixty-five years ago make The Irregulars a quick and interesting read, but also a maddening one: as she herself points out, Dahl and his fellow spies were happy to work in an environment where women were mere accessories or means to an end. Each female in the book was blatantly used for her looks, her body, her money, her influence, or some combination thereof. If Dahl and his cohorts, married or not, also happened to pull them into the sack, well, that was just an extra perk.

It's said that you should never meet your heroes; I'd qualify that by adding that you should never read biographical works about them, either. I grew up loving Dahl's books, particularly because of the way the characters thumbed their noses at authority (which he himself did in real life, almost costing himself his wartime assignments on a number of occasions). As a child I assumed that Dahl was a person I'd like to meet; after reading The Irregulars, I have to say I was left with the idea that he was a skirt-chasing, adulterous, sexist pig. If you can get past that, hold your nose and read this book.

Written by: M.L. Madison, December 9th 2009

Fay Grim

admin — Thu, 10 May 2007 18:28:00 +0000

Directed by Hal Hartley

Possible Films

Fay Grim is the sequel to Hal Hartley’s 1997 film Henry Fool, in which Queens garbage man Simon Fool (James Urbaniak) was befriended by the eponymous hero (Thomas Jay Ryan), who encouraged his literary ambitions. Simon wins the Nobel Prize for his poetry, Henry marries Simon’s sister Fay (Parker Posey) and they have a son, but at the film’s conclusion Henry flees the country to avoid arrest, leaving Simon to take the rap for aiding him. This back story is skillfully established in the first 20 minutes of the film, which is set seven years after Henry’s disappearance. Fay is a single mother, her son Ned (Liam Aiken) is 14 and in trouble at school, and Simon is in prison for his role in Henry’s escape. These parts are all reprised by the original actors.

The plot is set in motion when Angus (Chuck Montgomery), Simon’s publisher, tells Fay that he would like to find and publish Henry’s “Confessions,” a series of notebooks he wrote and claimed were a literary masterpiece. While everyone who has read them views them as garbage, Angus and Simon now believe that the books are in code and that Henry was a former secret agent. This theory is confirmed when two CIA agents (Jeff Goldblum and Leo Fitzpatrick) ask her to help them retrieve two of the notebooks from Paris. In exchange, Fay demands that Simon be released from jail. Soon she is engaged in a game of cat and mouse with agents from Israel, France and the U.S., and wondering whom she can trust. Along the way she meets Bebe (Elina Löwensohn), whom the CIA claims is a spy, but who tells Fay she is merely a stewardess who fell in love with Henry as he escaped the United States.

It’s difficult to categorize this film: part comedy, part drama, part spy caper. The tiff, disjointed dialogue at the beginning and the constantly tilting camera angles make the viewer slow to enter the world of the film, but as the film progresses, the engaging story and the strength of Parker’s performance draw the viewer in. Ultimately, it’s a well-done film, but won’t appeal to a mass audience.

Written by: Karen Duda, May 10th 2007