Review by IreneAdler -- Hidden in Plain Sight, a British...
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Review by IreneAdler -- Hidden in Plain Sight, a British...
[Following is a volunteer review of "Hidden in Plain Sight, a British Military Agent's Story" by Shirley Read-Jahn.]
Hidden in Plain Sight: a British Military Agent's Story provides all the thrills a spy novel-enthusiast could wish for, offering a captivating love story of an agent during the Second World War and the early Cold War. Shirley Read-Jahn undertook no lesser task than to unearth his father's intelligence activities, combined with the bittersweet love story of her parents that, as the author put it, became a "casualty of the war".
The early chapters of the book follow the young Fred Jahn (later: Fred Read-Jahn), framing his social status and bilingual upbringing as the perfect conditions for becoming an agent, alongside his younger brother, Hermann. Read-Jahn also showed the beginnings of her parents' relationship in great detail, which came to be just as important as the brief sketches of historical background. Throughout the book, it was often impossible to tell which story enjoys primacy: the love and marriage of the parents or her father's intelligence work.
This complex narrative could only emerge from the meticulous source work of the author - the bulk of the book is based on the letters of her father to his mother, which she acquired after his death. While much of the correspondence was processed and woven into the author's narrative, Read-Jahn included a fair amount of excerpts and full letters as well.
After the introductions into the two main narrative lines, a great section of the book discussed Fred Read-Jahn's difficult journey to the Soviet Union, to be continued with an account of his work as cypher clerk and intelligence agent in Moscow. The rest of the book is dedicated to his work in Great Britain during the last years of the war as well as his transition into the postwar times, which involved a relocation to Germany once more.
Hidden in Plain Sight is the enthusiastic account of a loving daughter about his father and the marriage of her parents. She shows immense understanding towards the strains that wartime and postwar separation put on them. Still, this made Read-Jahn a bit less perceptive towards the reproduction of some of the stereotypical thought her father displayed in his letters. Read-Jahn, for most of the book, retains a presence of an all-knowing narrator, but intervenes occasionally, expressing her opinion or stepping away from the text for a minute (without disrupting the fabric of the narrative). However, she did not apply this technique as corrective remarks or reflections on some of the harmful stereotypes that were being echoed by her father. Prime examples of these are the depiction of women - always through their appearances, dwelling much on their (lack of) attractiveness, or the even more specific, exoticizing introduction of a Chinese female colleague of his, who is cast in the book as the worst stereotype of an Asian temptress.
Despite the more extensive discussion of his father's thoughts and later on, relationship with, different women, Read-Jahn avoids profane language, in fact, in general, she provides a very sophisticated and witty prose. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars, as, I believe, that though the author showed that she is able and willing to use narrative techniques that would have precluded the simple repeating of sexist and exoticizing stereotypes, she did not choose to use them when it came to such sensitive implications of her book.
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Hidden in Plain Sight, a British Military Agent's Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Hidden in Plain Sight: a British Military Agent's Story provides all the thrills a spy novel-enthusiast could wish for, offering a captivating love story of an agent during the Second World War and the early Cold War. Shirley Read-Jahn undertook no lesser task than to unearth his father's intelligence activities, combined with the bittersweet love story of her parents that, as the author put it, became a "casualty of the war".
The early chapters of the book follow the young Fred Jahn (later: Fred Read-Jahn), framing his social status and bilingual upbringing as the perfect conditions for becoming an agent, alongside his younger brother, Hermann. Read-Jahn also showed the beginnings of her parents' relationship in great detail, which came to be just as important as the brief sketches of historical background. Throughout the book, it was often impossible to tell which story enjoys primacy: the love and marriage of the parents or her father's intelligence work.
This complex narrative could only emerge from the meticulous source work of the author - the bulk of the book is based on the letters of her father to his mother, which she acquired after his death. While much of the correspondence was processed and woven into the author's narrative, Read-Jahn included a fair amount of excerpts and full letters as well.
After the introductions into the two main narrative lines, a great section of the book discussed Fred Read-Jahn's difficult journey to the Soviet Union, to be continued with an account of his work as cypher clerk and intelligence agent in Moscow. The rest of the book is dedicated to his work in Great Britain during the last years of the war as well as his transition into the postwar times, which involved a relocation to Germany once more.
Hidden in Plain Sight is the enthusiastic account of a loving daughter about his father and the marriage of her parents. She shows immense understanding towards the strains that wartime and postwar separation put on them. Still, this made Read-Jahn a bit less perceptive towards the reproduction of some of the stereotypical thought her father displayed in his letters. Read-Jahn, for most of the book, retains a presence of an all-knowing narrator, but intervenes occasionally, expressing her opinion or stepping away from the text for a minute (without disrupting the fabric of the narrative). However, she did not apply this technique as corrective remarks or reflections on some of the harmful stereotypes that were being echoed by her father. Prime examples of these are the depiction of women - always through their appearances, dwelling much on their (lack of) attractiveness, or the even more specific, exoticizing introduction of a Chinese female colleague of his, who is cast in the book as the worst stereotype of an Asian temptress.
Despite the more extensive discussion of his father's thoughts and later on, relationship with, different women, Read-Jahn avoids profane language, in fact, in general, she provides a very sophisticated and witty prose. I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars, as, I believe, that though the author showed that she is able and willing to use narrative techniques that would have precluded the simple repeating of sexist and exoticizing stereotypes, she did not choose to use them when it came to such sensitive implications of her book.
******
Hidden in Plain Sight, a British Military Agent's Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: How To Be Successful by M. Curtis McCoy
