Björn recenserade My life in CIA av Harry Mathews
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4 stjärnor
Yup, this was fun. A (most likely fictionalized) memoir; living in Paris in the late 60s and early 70s, the time of student revolts, espionage and terrorism from extremists on both sides, Mathews often found himself - especially as the only American member of Oulipo, frequently hanging out with left-leaning intellectuals convinced of their own importance - suspected of being a CIA informant. So eventually, rather than denying it, he decides to play along; not by admitting it, but by denying it in a very obvious way, setting up what looks like a cover, making contacts with various odd freelance spooks trying to buy and sell anything that looks like a secret, making sure to be seen delivering and collecting odd packages in a conspicuously inconspicuous manner... Which is all fun and games until the big boys (or at least, people who think they're big boys, which in this cloak-and-dagger …
Yup, this was fun. A (most likely fictionalized) memoir; living in Paris in the late 60s and early 70s, the time of student revolts, espionage and terrorism from extremists on both sides, Mathews often found himself - especially as the only American member of Oulipo, frequently hanging out with left-leaning intellectuals convinced of their own importance - suspected of being a CIA informant. So eventually, rather than denying it, he decides to play along; not by admitting it, but by denying it in a very obvious way, setting up what looks like a cover, making contacts with various odd freelance spooks trying to buy and sell anything that looks like a secret, making sure to be seen delivering and collecting odd packages in a conspicuously inconspicuous manner... Which is all fun and games until the big boys (or at least, people who think they're big boys, which in this cloak-and-dagger business can be the same thing) start taking him seriously too. There's more than a little of Foucault's Pendulum in this, though not on as grand a scale, and perhaps not as overtly oulipian as I'd been hoping for. But definitely recommended. (And Georges Perec fans should note that Perec, or maybe that should be "Perec", is a fairly major character in the book too.)