'An Ordinary Spy' by Joseph Weisberg

An Ordinary Spy

A Novel

Joseph Weisberg

Bloomsbury: 256 pp., $23.95

HERE'S an idea: Write a spy novel in the currently fashionable minimalist mode -- no long descriptions of places, clothing, meals or characters, very little psychological or motivational probing, and dialogue that is mostly flat and banal. To this rather unappealing manner, author Joseph Weisberg, who once worked for the CIA, offers a conceit that, to my knowledge, is wholly original. He pretends that his manuscript, per regulations, was submitted to the agency's publications review board, which is charged with making sure "there is no currently classified material in the text."

As a result, "An Ordinary Spy" appears with "redacted" words, sentences and paragraphs blacked out on virtually every page, which naturally make its minimalism even more minimal. Other than when the two spies whose stories it relates are in the United States, you cannot possibly identify the country, or even the continent, where the action takes place.

That brings us to the real question: Is this a good idea? The masters of the modern espionage novel have all conceded, in one way or another, that there is an element of the absurd in the stories they tell. Whether we are talking Graham Greene, John le Carré or their many imitators, most of their fictions end in futility. The world is not saved or even greatly threatened by their doings; a lot of dangerous exertions are expended on activities that produce results of no large consequences either for the spies or their masters. The best of these novels end with a weary existential shrug, an acknowledgment that the game produces more burnt-out cases than clear-cut winners or losers. We read these tales, those of us who are addicted to them, for mood and atmosphere, for their creepy evocations of suspenseful unease. The very best of them are inherently maximal fictions -- the opposite of what Weisberg has attempted here -- in that they are richly characterized, dense with detail, imaginative in the often subtle and suspenseful development of menacing atmosphere.