Customer Reviews

Loose Lips

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In her engaging, endearing, and funny first novel, LOOSE LIPS, author Claire Berlinski manages to overcome any first time jitters, as she builds on a world with which many readers are familiar - the CIA, including its recruiting and training process.

This novel is no mere roman à clef. Berlinski's portrayal of Selena Keller as a woman with no sense of personal mooring, adrift in a world that lacks remorse, is positively brilliant. This is because, in Selena's quest for certainty, she turns for safe harbor to the CIA, home to deception, lies, and duplicity. What a clever paradox. So as Selena Keller becomes more certain about some items (the ability to drive a car, to recognize location and position, even increasing her awareness to the external environment about her), she becomes more uncertain about others (relationships in particular: between friends, between lovers, between sexes, between employers and employees, etc).

Truth plays a central role in this novel, as both metaphor and simile, and arguably, as this novel's central protagonist. (NB: the many aphorisms.) For all Selena does learn, she remains confused, lost. In some senses, it is odd that Selena fails to recognize how two key people physically change to achieve their objectives (good spycraft?), even though she notes the actual changes without speculating on their true motivations. For example, near the novel's end, she helps two friends reconcile their relationship, but to achieve this, she has each assume a role not in keeping with who they truly are. The two lovers do get together, but at what cost to themselves and their relationship?

This novel's coda provides the fireworks for the more literary-minded readers. Until this point, the novel is fun, but when it takes a turn to the serious, Selena Keller becomes a fuller, more-seasoned character who has something to say, to offer readers beyond mere entertainment. Appearances indicate that Claire Berlinski has no intention to write a series of escapades based on this character, which is to Berlinski's credit. However, given the opportunity, the Selena Keller who finally emerges at novel's end deserves more breathing room, perhaps even her own novel that has nothing whatsoever to do with the CIA.

Good show!

Claire Berlinski's novel Loose Lips will keep you glued to your chair until the bitter end. The CIA training information is so true to life, you wonder how high her security clearances go. However, it's the interwoven love story that will make you shake your head, remembering all your exes who seemed so right AT THE TIME, until you discovered otherwise. I couldn't put it down. Highly recommended!

I'm not a veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, but I've read about them and have been around Intelligence Community for over a decade. My feeling is that Berlinski really did capture what it is like to be a case officer for the CIA, i.e. one of the people who makes a living by persuading others to become traitors.

The bottom line is that what the author writes seems to me to be real enough that I'm left wondering who she might have talked to in order to get the insight that she displays in the book. I find myself thinking that this book might be a thinly disguised autobiographical account since the dust jacket is a little bit skimpy on details about where she's worked.

In any case, if anyone wants to know what the classic type of intelligence officer (not "spies") does for a living and what it takes, "Loose Lips" is the book to read. I wouldn't be surprised if I see it show up at the CIA giftshop. I've seen other novels there.

My only gripe is that the book was so good I wanted the story to last longer than it did and show the heroine in the field. If Berlinski wrote like Tom Clancy or Stephen King, a five or six hundred page long book would be way too long. But given her outstanding writing at under 300 pages, "Loose Lips" is too short. But then again, perhaps that's an application of the principal of always leaving your audience wanting more.

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. It has a great first person chick lit tone, edgy and hip, but it's much more than that. This is a very well written, intelligent, and carefully crafted book. It is also a fascinating peek into a world that most of us know very little about, and it reads like truth...like the writer has very accurate and intimate knowledge of her subject...or if not, then she's an even better writer than we realize! I liked that she grew to like a less than typically handsome hero, that her attraction to his intelligence made him more attractive. We also saw enough layers of the main players to know that there was more going on under the surface and things were not exactly as they appeared. Very well done. I look forward to reading what this author comes up with next.

I'm not a veteran of the CIA's clandestine service, but I've read about them and have been around Intelligence Community for over a decade. My feeling is that Berlinski really did capture what it is like to be a case officer for the CIA, i.e. one of the people who makes a living by persuading others to become traitors.

The bottom line is that what the author writes seems to me to be real enough that I'm left wondering who she might have talked to in order to get the insight that she displays in the book. I find myself thinking that this book might be a thinly disguised autobiographical account since the dust jacket is a little bit skimpy on details about where she's worked.

In any case, if anyone wants to know what the classic type of intelligence officer (not "spies") does for a living and what it takes, "Loose Lips" is the book to read. I wouldn't be surprised if I see it show up at the CIA giftshop. I've seen other novels there.

My only gripe is that the book was so good I wanted the story to last longer than it did and show the heroine in the field. If Berlinski wrote like Tom Clancy or Stephen King, a five or six hundred page long book would be way too long. But given her outstanding writing at under 300 pages, "Loose Lips" is too short. But then again, perhaps that's an application of the principal of always leaving your audience wanting more.

Do you crave a spy story with a heavy dose of wit and intrigue? Then this is the book you want to read. I am not going to recap the plot, since other reviewers have done a good job already. What never fails to amuse me is the seriousness of the approach many readers assume when they criticize a fiction novel intended for a sheer entertainment and a light brain exercise. "The novel left me wondering, it left me unsatisfied." Jeez, must every novel end up with male and female protagonists saving the world and riding into the sunset? Although the novel did leave the reader questioning, the feeling resembles tasting a glass of exquisite wine somewhere. You remember the flavor and how much you enjoyed it, realize how much you crave for it but you never found out the name. And you never will. Does that diminish the pleasure of the experience, does that fall into the category of bad wine, simply because you didn't down the entire bottle? No. The book leaves you longing for a closure, it leaves you wandering, and that's what a good book should do.

In terms of material density, for Pete's sake, this is a fiction novel not a biography or a textbook. Did you expect to learn about the secret operations of the Federal Reserve or about the political conflicts in Turkmenistan? Some people will never stop trying to squeeze water out of a stone. You want to learn something more in-depth; fiction is not an all-encompassing source.

Also I have a problem with classifying this as chick lit. Only because it was written by a woman, about a woman doesn't mean it can only appeal to women. Berlinski used such an immaculate, spicy humor and wraped it in a layer of juicy espionage that it can easily cater to both genders. Plus let's not forget that there aren't that many female authors in the espionage genre, thus that on its own deserves to be revered as good work. I just wonder why we don't classify Ludlum's novels as "guy lit". Perhaps because somehow classifying something as <insert gender> "lit" is slightly derogatory? I am "Romance Novels'" worst enemy, cheesy, tacky, primitive, totally unrealistic hogwash, this is what I would consider "chick lit," this novel doesn't even come close. Au contraire, the author uses a very unconventional and refreshing imagery of romantic relations.

In conclusion of my rant let me just state that I highly enjoyed the book. What's more, I found myself bursting out with laughter and reading certain excerpts to my boy toy, who enjoyed them just as much, if not more. This is my final evaluation, the book has pizzazz, spice, wit, passion, interesting information, and keeps you glued to the pages. Read the book, experience it for yourself and don't pay attention to negative reviews, they don't know what they are writing.

Claire Berlinski's novel, "Loose Lips," is simply terrific. It is a clever, satirical, and intelligent look at why new recruits join the CIA and what happens to them after they sign up. The heroine of "Loose Lips" is Selena Keller, an academic who holds a doctorate in Oriental Studies but has no promising job prospects on the horizon. While surfing the Internet, she sees an ad for CIA trainees and she decides to respond.

Selena, along with a motley crew of other recruits, has no idea what she is getting into. She will be mentally and physically tested in ways that she could never have anticipated. Along the way, she finds love, learns how to lie expertly, and begins to realize that being part of the CIA may require her to sell her soul.

Berlinski pulls off a difficult feat. She takes a serious subject, namely what the CIA means to America and how a person trains to be a CIA agent, and makes it entertaining. "Loose Lips" is hilarious, incisive, psychologically astute, thought-provoking, and completely satisfying. I highly recommend it.

Claire Berlinski's First Book was a terrific read with a fast moving, highly entertaining plot, witty dialogue and insights and observations about the CIA that are so detailed they sound autobiographical. ... Looking forward to the movie.

I picked this book up on a summer Sunday afternoon and could not put it down. It is well-written, humorous and intriguing. I loved it! All I could think of was myself at a similar age and how I might have landed up in the same situation.

As others have pointed out, it is fairly evident that Ms. Berlinski had some "inside" information on the training of CIA agents. Whether from personal experience or through a friend, I believe that she has given us a glimpse of the inside. This makes the book even more compelling.

For once I am happy to say, "try it, you'll like it!"

I loved this book and once I started it, I was so fascinated with the subject matter and the author's witty and charming writing style that I was glued to the book until the end! The author writes about being a trainee for the CIA in a way that makes one think she has inside knowledge. The book claims to be a novel but it actually seems so knowledgeable and realistic that the scenarios of the CIA training and CIA insider politics feel authentic. I can't help wondering if there is "insider knowledge" involved. I truly enjoyed this book and I thought the book was the most entertaining one I've read in a long time.