Loose Lips (Hardcover)

by Claire Berlinski (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Gidget joins the CIA in political writer Berlinski's rousing, hilarious, compulsively readable debut about a restless New Yorker who enlists in the secret service and learns about truth and justice the hard way. A Sanskritist previously stationed in India, spunky Selena Keller has returned to Manhattan only to face a lackluster teaching tenure. When a cryptic Internet ad seeking an "extraordinary individual" catches her eye, a whirlwind of screening exams and evaluations usher Selena in as the CIA's newest employee. Soon after relocating to Virginia, an orientation consisting of dull paperwork is replaced with hardcore, exhilarating physical instruction at a remote facility called "the Farm," where Selena learns hand-to-hand combat, emergency medicine and hilariously attempts to overcome a fear of flying. She befriends a tough, beautiful trainee named Iris and dates unsuccessfully-until Stan, a "pale, fat man with small eyes and very spiky thick red hair" manages to thrill her with his memory skills and eventually seduce her. Just as all is going well, Selena's trustworthiness and loyalty (and extracurricular activities) are called into question by a tough group of CIA adjudicators, an investigation is launched and it's clear that someone has framed her. Paranoia mounts and everyone close to Selena is considered a potential traitor, including the increasingly slimy Stan. Berlinski's far-fetched comedy of manners clips her protagonist's career wings a bit prematurely, but there's still a lot to cheer about thanks to the narrative voice of an extremely engaging and likable main character. Breezy, accomplished and bracing, this is superior entertainment.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School-Selena Keller, a young scholar of Sanskrit literature, just isn't cut out for the life of an obscure academic. Impulsively, she answers an ad to work for the CIA, and the savvy New Yorker soon finds herself caught up in a culture as alien as any she had experienced in India or academia. Taught to recruit foreign nationals to serve as spies for the U.S., she learns covert operations at the agency's headquarters in McLean and paramilitary skills at its fabled "Farm" in rural Virginia. She makes friends and finds a lover, but her ambitious classmates tend to practice their new spycraft techniques on each other, and it is never clear how genuine these relationships are. Selena shows a talent for holding her own, and readers stay on the hook to see what happens next-and to find out what's really going on. Ultimately, a vestigial conscience-and a questioning intelligence that makes it impossible for her to embrace the Company spirit-proves to be Selena's undoing, and she finds liberation in a colorful ending. This fast-moving, economically told story has elements of humor, satire, and mystery. Though some readers will simply enjoy this book as spicy light fare, others will also savor its dark undertones.
Christine C. Menefee, Fairfax County Public Library,
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (June 17, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375509089
• ISBN-13: 978-0375509087
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,109,285 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, intelligent fiction, June 23, 2003

By	Shannon Okey "knitgrrl.com" (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Engaging, endearing, and funny!, July 23, 2003

By	David M. Gordon (Las Vegas, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very, very good and authentic, June 19, 2003

By A Customer

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.