Loose Lips by Claire Berlinski

Random House, 255 pages

I’m drawn to this book for two reasons. One, it reminds me so much of two little movies that no one ever saw, and if they did, they never talk about them. 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR with Redford when he was king and THE AMATEUR with John Savage, who at one time was supposed to be king, but he rolled a pair of snake eyes and vanished off the face of the earth. Both brilliantly show different sides of working for the CIA, and this novel, as sharp witted and savagely funny as it is, should be held in that same class.

But those are movies and this is a book. I know.

Still, LOOSE LIPS has something that surprised even this jaded cynic. There’s a sort of unknown about the known in this story that Berlinski renders with an assured talent and a fine knack for emotion. If that doesn’t make sense, let me explain. And I’ll use one more movie to do so... THE PARALLAX VIEW, back when Warren Beatty didn’t know he was an actor. The other reason I was drawn to this book? I think everyone, at some point in their life, thinks they have a shot at working for the CIA.

It’s more than a little obvious that Selena Keller is Claire Berlinski, or maybe it’s her sister. The title page has “A Roman Claire” written under the title, which leads me to believe the fetching drink of water that’s described by Ms. Berlinski in the book is actually the author herself, even though I’ve been assured it’s not. Did Berlinski dip her toe into the Central Intelligence Agency? Go to The Farm? Get trained for work in the CST unit of the CIA? She drops little hints in the strange epilogue and appendix and acknowledgments at the end of the book that she’s actually bound to secrecy. Now, that’s interesting! But it’s more interesting to me that she wrote a story about a woman working in the CIA in a pre-9/11 world, a place where it would seem that something as off the cuff as this book might have been permitted. Selena Keller is a great catch; any writer should be thrilled to have her at their disposal. Inwardly innocent, strikingly beautiful, she’s a smoker (flaw), paranoid (a huge CIA flaw), and determined to overcome her obvious limitations that will stop her cold in her pursuit of becoming an agent.

A Sanskrit aficionado, world traveled, highly educated... Selena Keller possesses all the traits of someone the CIA would love to have on the payroll. Perfect. I don’t know about the test to get into the CIA, but the one they give you at the FBI is brutal, and that’s just for them to start the process of recruiting you. Selena makes it through a series of short meetings with people that seem to be passing time in the company. They’re following rules and filling in the blanks. The uncharted water Selena finds herself in doesn’t start to boil until she gets to “The Farm”. I guess if you’ve watched enough movies, you’d figure out a way to fake a scene or two about this storied piece of land. Berlinski does more than that. She takes you into the heart of the place without ever bogging you down with the boring details. Selena has a quick one-night stand with another student, and at the academy the “first one is free”, as she soon learns. After that, they turn the microscope on your ass, and Selena ends up having to bare all.

Berlinski writes Selena like she’s romanticizing about an old childhood friend over a glass of wine at a local bar. Selena is completely petrified to jump out of a plane, but to pass, she must do it, and survive she does. Then she nearly fails the surveillance part of the course, since she doesn’t know how to drive, and she’s really had no practice. Her skills behind the wheel would terrify even this bad driver. Then Berlinski introduces her readers to Stan, Selena’s love interest for the rest of the novel. Stan is a guy who just won’t be happy until he’s President of the United States. At the same time, he takes Selena in for what may or may not be the ride of her life. They fall in love, and the story seems to take a detour into the melodramatic. Berlinski keeps you guessing by finishing a mid-romance chapter with “I’d been recruited”. The goal for all CIA operatives, or at least Selena’s goal, is to become a case officer and recruit assets for the United States government to use as weapons. Successfully convicting someone of treason is very difficult to do. Even more difficult is getting someone to turn on his or her own country. Selena never gets that chance. Part of me wanted to see what she could do out in the field, but a simple, honest blunder keeps her out of the game. The diversion into the Canadian Salmon market is a very interesting insight into our relations with those northern neighbors. LOOSE LIPS signals to the rest of the free world that Claire Berlinski is someone to watch out for.

10 Questions for Claire Berlinski

Frank Bascombe: Selena Keller, who is she and where did she come from?

Claire Berlinski: Selena Keller is a native New Yorker who, before joining the CIA, had spent her life preparing for a career in academia as a Sanskritist.

FB: The CIA, we know what it stands for, but for the beginners out there, what does the CST branch of the CIA do?

CB: CST stands for "Clandestine Service Trainee." All prospective spies must pass a demanding training course; during this time they are called CSTs. The CST branch supervises this course.

FB: 'Loose Lips' feels like a movie, I've mentioned that before. Espionage, spying, and all the mysteries that go with it is always feed through the male stereotype. So why pick a woman as a main character?

CB: I chose a female character precisely because the protagonists of most famous espionage books and movies are male, and I thought that depicting a female spy in a realistic way would be a nice break from tradition. In fact, many CSTs are women.

FB: You've lived overseas, now, and in your formative years, what's the European perception of America? Specifically what do the French think of America? Tony Blair for instance seemed to swallow a big lump of fear when our Commander and Chief pointed in his direction post 9-11 asking him for military assistance.

CB: Europe is a big place, and I'm not sure there's a unified European perception of America. By and large, my impression is that the French don’t know quite what to make of America, and understand it very poorly, usually in terms of broad and simplistic stereotypes -- if asked what first came to mind when they thought of America, I reckon most French people would say something about it being a big country full of big people with big buildings and a big military. Among French intellectuals, there is a wide range of opinion about the proper role and exercise of US military power; these debates are very much parallel to similar discussions among Americans themselves. Culturally, the French are near unanimous in voicing concern about the influence of American fast food and popular culture. This does not, I note, stop them from consuming both, avidly.

FB: In a post 9-11 world do you have any fears of your book not being accepted?

CB: Readers seem to enjoy it; I've not heard any complaints along these lines. Despite making fun of the CIA, it is in the end a deeply patriotic book.

FB: Selena Keller makes a simple mistake in mixing her personal life with her work life. In your experience would it be that simple to remove someone from the CIA for the error she made on e-mail?

CB: Yes. Happens all the time.

FB: With the obvious breakdown in security prior to 9-11, intelligence and just general obtuseness on behalf of the United States Government, how do you think the CIA is recruiting people now? And moving forward, knowing what we know about the people who want to destroy this country? Would the process of getting an "assets" to divulge information about their country be more difficult now, or would you think it would be easier?

CB: I'm not sure whether you're talking about recruiting employees or assets. As for the former, I've read that following September 11, the Agency was flooded with employment applications, so I'm sure they've had no trouble recruiting new CSTs. In terms of recruiting assets, I'd like to think that September 11 encouraged outraged and appalled volunteers to come forward, but it's hard to say. I would assume that many bogus assets, with no information of real intelligence value, have been keen to capitalize on the United States' desperation for information, and I'm sure it's been quite challenging to sort through the rabble.

FB: Stan, where did he come from? You've developed a sort of strange bedfellow for Selena; did you ever want her to be with anyone else? Or, alone through the book, adding to her already creeping paranoia?

CB: Stan is from a small town in the Midwest. At the beginning of the book, Selena embarks upon a failed romance with Paul, a much more attractive man, but she's left vulnerable when Paul jilts her, preparing her for Stan's special brand of seduction. I'd have liked for things to have worked out with Paul, but then there wouldn't have been much of a book left to write. I wanted Selena to have a relationship because I wanted to show the parallels between espionage and love: In both, we are never quite sure whom to trust, and in both, we can madden ourselves – and destroy ourselves – with suspicion and paranoia. So no, I never considered having her go through the book alone.

FB: Couple of inspiration questions. What are your five favorite movies and your five favorite books?

CB: Not necessarily my favorites, but the first that come to mind.

Movies: Yojimbo. Lawrence of Arabia. Chinatown. The Godfather. Dirty Harry.

Books: Lolita. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Heart of Darkness. The Quiet American. The Great Gatsby.

FB: I have to know, and you can answer this question whichever way you'd like. Did you work for the CIA or the CST division?

CB: The only answer I could give to that question, whether or not I'd worked for them, is "no."

FB: Claire Berlinski, thank you for taking the time out to talk to me about your new book.

CB: You’re welcome!

There you have it. Claire Berlinski wrote the book. She answered my questions. Now go out and read it.

My New Fighting Technique is Unstoppable by David Rees

Riverhead Books, 64 Pages

I’ll admit that graphic novels have passed me by. The effort is, for the most part, lost on me. Sure, I enjoyed IRON MAN comics as a kid for the story mostly, and even DAREDEVIL for a while, but I soon discovered Stephen King and Ed McBain, then graduated high school and got a driver’s license. When this small little book of “Crumbly Comics” crossed my desk, I left it alone for a month or so. It’s a black and white collection of Mr. Rees’s most recent work, and it’s not something I wholly understand. Call me naive, sheltered, or narrow, but a book filled with comic characters doing nothing more than pounding on each other and saying, “Fuck that! There’s a new motherfucker who’s just a fucking Circulatory System or some shit! He wants to fight!” seems to me like it’s about something that I can’t figure out. This motif runs through the sixty-four pages of this book, which I’ve been told not to call a “graphic novel”. There is a Kung-fu Snoopy character that also finds his place amongst the “fucks” and “shits” of this sparse narrative, but he seems wooden and one-dimensional. This book may be a commentary on how we’re feeling as a nation, perhaps? Rees had a little comic strip in a recent issue of ROLLING STONE, where one of the characters summed up his pain by talking aloud about the climate created by post 9/11 guilt and its underpinnings in regards to our commander and chief. I liked that. It said something coherent to me. MNFTIU is a book of repetitive themes based around a new fighting technique that’s not all that new. Get mad. Beat some ass. Go home and have a power bar, then go out and do it again. The enemy is all around us. You’re never safe. This book may help guide you in your quest for coherence, or perhaps it will help you vent your frustrations, whatever they may be.

If you have any questions or comments, always feel free to email me.

Frank Bascombe

Nice mini-interview, Frank. I’m a total geek for anything about the intelligence community and spy work, and I hadn’t read anything about LOOSE LIPS until now. Consider at least one copy sold immediately.

"Moriarty" out.