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Locations
Call Number: Fiction / McEwan, Ian, Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / Espionage / McEwan, Ian
On Shelf At: Downtown Library
Location & Checkout Length | Call Number | Checkout Length | Item Status |
---|---|---|---|
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout |
Fiction / McEwan, Ian | 4-week checkout | On Shelf |
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout |
Fiction / McEwan, Ian | 4-week checkout | Due 05-22-2024 |
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / Espionage / McEwan, Ian | 4-week checkout | Due 05-20-2024 |
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout |
Adult Book / Fiction / Thriller / Espionage / McEwan, Ian | 4-week checkout | Due 05-22-2024 |
Originally published: London : Jonathan Cape, 2012.
Recruited into MI5 against a backdrop of the Cold War in 1972, Cambridge student Serena Frome, a compulsive reader, is assigned to infiltrate the literary circle of a promising young writer whose politics align with those of the government, a situation that is compromised when she falls in love with him.
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COMMUNITY REVIEWS
literary spy
submitted by camelsamba on August 22, 2019, 10:50pm
I don’t remember what led me to this book, but i was expecting some traditional cold-war espionage ala early Le Carre. This was not that book. It's more like a romance, but in the end it's Literary Fiction.
On the surface, it’s a story about a girl of middling talent who gets pushed to study maths at an Oxbridge college when she’d rather study literature. Next she ends up in an affair with a professor who grooms her for a job in MI-5. Since it’s 1972 young women aren’t given much authority but she does end up as part of a case that appeals to her love of contemporary fiction. The intelligence service wants authors to write pieces that will make the public love Western Capitalism and scorn communism, but without knowing they're being funded as propaganda. (Based on true events.) One complication: Serena ends up "in love" with her mark. But can you really be in love if you don't reveal your true self, or (more simply) even your job? Of course there's a much deeper story line about "betrayal and intrigue, love and the invented self" - normally that kind of thing would go over my head (I'm more of a Serena than someone with a first in literature) but the twist in the final chapter drives home the point.
Cerebral romantic intrigue submitted by kkjammers on March 24, 2021, 7:26pm McEwan is a brilliant writer. His intricate plot is engaging and occasionally too close personally, although I am no spy. Descriptions of characters physically and emotionally, and what their motivations are, are exact and sometimes painful. This novel is a rich feast for those who love language and written works.
PUBLISHED
New York : Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 2012.
Year Published: 2012
Description: 304 p. ; 25 cm.
Language: English
Format: Book
ISBN/STANDARD NUMBER
9780385536820
0385536828
SUBJECTS
Women spies -- Fiction.
Authors, English -- Fiction.
England -- Fiction.
Spy stories.
Love stories.
Historical fiction.