There Are No Spies by Bill Granger

(hb; 1986: seventh novel in The November Man series)


From the inside flap:

"The time is early March. The place is Lausanne, the Swiss city with a university and a cathedral, an easy place to live. The name is Devereaux, also known as November, the American field officer with ultrasecret R Section who has gone to ground above the shores of Lake Geneva.

"He does not know that a beautiful KGB agent with a talent for murder and making love has been ordered to stalk two Novembers -- and kill them both.

"He does not know that Hanley, the man who has been his control for nineteen years in R Section, has had a nervous breakdown -- and is currently in a government-subsidized asylum for people who have too many secrets.

"He does not know that Hanley's desperate message 'There are no spies' will activate him back into service -- and into a mission to save both his own life and R Section itself.

"And he does not know that zero hour ticks closer for Nutcracker, the top-secret plan to lure the Soviets' master spy into the fold of the West with himself as the designated pawn. When Devereaux emerges, reluctantly, out of concealment, he will find himself alone and betrayed inside an international free-fire zone. Here morality comes, if at all, at the end of the game -- when there is no victory, only the absence of defeat."


Review:

Spies is a solid and entertaining -- if sometimes chatty -- read, with plenty of Cold War-conspiratorial action livening up the storyline. It runs a bit long near the end, but it's still worth your time if you can overlook those relatively minor flaws, and if you check it out from the library.

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The resulting, better-than-the-book film, The November Man, was released stateside on August 27, 2014. Roger Donaldson directed the film, from a script by Michael Finch and Karl Gajdusek.

Pierce Brosnan played Devereaux. Luke Bracey played Mason. Olga Kurylenko played Alice. Bill Smitrovich played Hanley. Amila Terzimehic played Alexa.

Lazar Ristovski played Arkady Federov. Mediha Musliovic played Natalia Ulanova. Eliza Taylor played Sarah. Will Patton, billed as William Patton, played Perry Weinstein. Caterina Scorsone played Celia.

Jesus' Son, by Denis Johnson

(pb; 1992: story anthology)

From the back cover:

"Jesus' Son, the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of achievement for this acclaimed writer. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange world brought uncomfortably close to our own, the stories in Jesus' Son offer a disturbing yet eerily beautiful portrayal of American loneliness and hope."

Review:

Jesus's Son is a raw-nerve, febrile-intense "fractured novel" anthology that takes place during the early 1970s, where a heroin addict (nicknamed "F**khead") narrates his largely-unfortunate relationships (which often result in overdoses, gunshot wounds, pregnancy and car crashes), as well as his eventual attempts to "get clean."

Beautiful, situationally harsh, darkly funny, sensitive and stunning work.

One of the best story anthologies I've ever read, this. Worth owning, if you like elegiac, poetic and gritty writing.

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The film version, bearing the same title as its source anthology, was released stateside on June 16, 2000.

Billy Crudup played FH (aka "F**khead"). Robert Michael Kelly played "Salesman". Samantha Morton played Michelle. Steve Buck played Richard. Brooke Rachel Shive, billed as Brooke Shive, played Beatle. Mark Webber played Jack Hotel. Michael Shannon, billed as Mike Shannon, played Dundun. Ben Shenkman played Tom. Scott Oster played Stan. John Ventimiglia played McInnes.

Jack Black played Georgie. Denis Leary played Wayne. Will Patton played John Smith. Greg Germann played Dr. Shanis. Miranda July played "Black-Eyed Nurse". Dennis Hopper played Bill. Holly Hunter played Mira. Alan Davidson played Snakeskin.

Alison Maclean directed the film, from a script by David Urrutia, Oren Moverman and Elizabeth Cuthrell (who also played a "Diner Waitress" in the film).