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STORIES OF THE CIA

Name: STORIES OF THE CIA
Author: A.V. Wittner
ISBN: 978-0-692-87370-0

INCLUDING THE LATEST SECRET MISSION

by A.V. Wittner ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 3, 2017

A charismatic reflection by a national security specialist that’s occasionally foiled by uneven writing.

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An assemblage of personal remembrances focuses on the author’s career in national security.

Wittner (Three Dogs, Some Satire, a Girl and Europe, 2009) devoted four decades of his life to national security work, some of it in the governmental sector, some of it in private consultation. Much of this memoir—more a series of impressionistic vignettes than a linear autobiography—covers his career, including his travels through Europe. Most of the anecdotes—informally related in a conversational, jocose tone—are very brief and are explicitly designed to deliver lighthearted entertainment. For example, Wittner attended a wedding of two young socialists, and the groom’s father was a high-ranking CIA official. The guest list was studded with other intelligence officers, all there to witness the ceremony’s officiant advocate the government’s revolutionary toppling. But the author doesn’t restrict his reminiscences to professional life; he also discusses his love of fishing, his undying affection for his dogs, and his brief baseball career at Cornell. There is also plenty of meandering commentary, including grouses about the state of contemporary journalism and the running of the bulls in Pamplona. In one of the longer recollections, he tells the intriguing story of a teenage girl whom he helped leave Poland for the United States to continue her education and the unusual friendship that formed between the two of them despite an age difference that spanned decades. In a satirical essay on American democracy, the author proposes a new electoral system that unevenly distributes voting power, with libertarians wielding the most and the hypereducated and hyperreligious the least. Wittner is charmingly unpretentious, and he has an attentive eye for the comically absurd. In addition, his career was a genuinely memorable one. The best of his reflections come in the form of minitravelogues, chronicles of foreign cultures straining at the seams. For example, he provides an incisive look at the tension between Poland’s youthful ambition to embrace modernity and a traditionalist impulse to chasten progress. But the prose can slide from unfussy into slapdash; in a prefatory note, the author confesses to an impatience with both editing and punctuation.

A charismatic reflection by a national security specialist that’s occasionally foiled by uneven writing.

Pub Date: April 3, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-692-87370-0

Page Count: 214

Publisher: CreateSpace

Review Posted Online: Jan. 17, 2018

Review Program: Kirkus Indie

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.