Customer Reviews

Lion Eyes

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Claire Berlinski's LION EYES is an online dating story, a spy story, a travelogue (it's set in Paris and Istanbul), and a story about how wacky people and life can be. It's brilliant, witty, clever, and comedic with a nice sense of symmetry. Claire wrote an earlier novel, LOOSE LIPS, about a woman with a degree in English who decides to join the CIA because she doesn't want to teach; LOOSE LIPS is somewhat of an exposé of the CIA training practices with a love story thrown in. In LION EYES, the follow-up novel, Claire (who does actually live in Paris and Istanbul) receives a query from an Iranian archeologist about how he can get a copy of LOOSE LIPS, since Amazon doesn't deliver to Iran. Unfortunately, later when Claire's sending an e-mail to a friend about Claire's being dumped by her boyfriend, she inadvertently sends it to the wrong address--to the Iranian archeologist. From there, they develop a epistolary relationship all the while Claire is working on her next novel, corresponding with a friend also working on a book, and corresponding with another friend, a therapist. The archeologist turns out to be someone being monitored by the CIA, not for being a terrorist, but for being someone with valuable information on where Iranian nuclear sites are located. This is a lighthearted, delightful, charming, extremely well written book with many zany surprises. I couldn't put it down!

I didn't read this author's first book, Loose Lips, but will need to do so as I thought this book was pretty good. The author does a great job of moving back and forth between conversations and relationships with different people in the book who eventually reveal a common thread. Taking place in Paris and then Istanbul, this spy-like novel doesn't disappoint.

This is a witty and imaginative story told in sharp, self-assured prose. Lion Eyes is not just for Eagles fans-- it's for anyone who enjoys vivid descriptions of place (Istanbul, Paris) and pointed commentary about the lines between fact and fiction. I read this book greedily; I can't wait for more from Claire Berlinski.

There is apparently a new sub-genre: the spy/mystery novel in which the narrator/protagonist is a hip, young single woman who is connected to law enforcement but earns her living some other way, and whose personal life is important to the story. I have read two novels by Sujata Massey, and definitely prefer them to "Lion Eyes", especially Massey's "The Pearl Diver".

Berlinski can be witty, and I very much enjoyed the character of her psychoanalyst friend, although he certainly was not as much fun in person as in his e-mails. The spy plot actually makes sense, although it is not all that important to the novel. Why do I prefer Massey? She is a better writer and cultural observer, and her protagonist is a better developed character.

After writing her first book, Loose Lips, author Claire Berlinski is contacted by an Iranian archeologist, Arsalan Sefani who lives in the Iranian town of Isfahan. He read the first chapter of her book on the Internet, but cannot obtain the book as no one even the on online sellers send to his town. He asks her to help him obtain a copy. She sends him a PDF file of the manuscript which leads to exchanges of email.

Unlike some of these relationships, there is nothing romantic between Claire and Arsalan, but a friendship forges. He tells her about his work, the death of his mother, the need to prepare a special dinner for a big shot donor, and the care of his late mother's cat. She gives him advice and encouragement.

When she fails to hear from him after awhile, she worries. When he finally reestablishes contact, Arsalan says he is going to Paris for a conference and would like to meet her. She agrees. Her CIA friend Sally also wants to meet him in an official capacity. After they meet, he and his belongings vanish from her flat leaving Claire to wonder what happened to her Iranian guest.

This is a serio-comic novel loaded with humor due to a secondary cast of oddballs and eccentrics including a woman masquerading as a man who falls in love with a female and a psychiatrist on the three minute date diet seeking Ms. Right. These and others give the novel a sense of zaniness which leads amused readers to wonder about their "credentials" as they advise Claire re Arsalan. The protagonist like many find herself drowning in email relationships (some companies have email-less Fridays) even while Claire wonders how cyberspace compounded by a simple visit has left her life spinning out of control.

Harriet Klausner

... and in the end, our "fictional" Claire is all the wiser. I just finished reading Claire Berlinski's "Lion Eyes," and before I did anything else, I plopped down at my desk to come write a review of this incredible book!

I want to use a bunch of cliche statements one reads in book reviews and state that this book was phenomenal, a real page-turner (I read it in two days), and is a must-read for everyone this summer -- and I actually mean what I say with said cliches. It is filled with everything that a reader of contemporary fiction is looking for: it has humor (Imran in the bathroom almost caused cherry Kool-aid to snort out of my nose when I read that scene), romance (Claires, both of you... I fell for Arsalan too, and I'm as intelligent, well-educated, and professional as you two!), intrigue, espionage, fantasy, and reality. The plot twists in all the right places, and as gifted as I am with guessing outcomes of books (I saw the Tyler Durden/narrator thing coming a mile away in "Fight Club," mind you) "Lion Eyes" delighted me with unexpected blind allies and secret passageways the whole time, all the way to the end. Claire Berlinski's literary abilities shine forth with this book, and I genuinely hope that she has something else in the queue to be published soon.

Perhaps you, like me, will find yourself humming "Lying Eyes" by the Eagles (get it? hee) once you read this enchanting book. Trust me, a charismatic, brilliant man who loves poetry, animals, and his mother is hard for a girl to resist, even when he exists only behind typed black words on a book's white page, and you root for Claire implicitly as she tells the reader her tale of the allure of internet correspondence with a mysterious stranger. Every single element Claire Berlinski used worked flawlessly in this book, from her cast of lovable characters to the vivid imagery in which foreign and exotic places are described. The reader peers over Claire's shoulder as she emails Arsalan, Samantha, and Imran, and we follow right behind her as she explores Istanbul and Paris. I wanted this book to go on and on, but Claire was right to say what she said to The Lion in her final email to him. What did she say? Read the book!

Whether it's a spy novel or a political critique, Claire Berlinski has great intellect and capacity to entertain. She writes with an incisive but humorous eye, never taking herself or her characters too seriously. Loved "Loose Lips" and "Lion Eyes"...just very curious, as we all are, about what percentage is memoir vs. fiction.

In this second novel Berlinksi, author of Loose Lips writes about a fictional version of herself in the aftermath of the publication of her first book. Set in Paris and Istanbul with great descriptions of the two places, sprinkled with plenty of humor the book has a convoluted plot line that makes you constantly wonder which bits are fiction and which bits are from her real life. I especially enjoyed the epistolary format, with a significant portion of the book taking place in email correspondence between the author/protagonist and the various other characters in the novel.