Forbidden Area by Pat Frank

Forbidden Area by Pat Frank is the only book I managed to finish during last week's mini-slump and it's a good one but it took me the entire week to get through it because I was struggling to even talk myself into reading. The story eventually became exciting enough that I had trouble putting it down, thank goodness, thus ending the slump (for good, I hope).

Published in 1956, this Cold War era novel by the author of Alas, Babylon is about the run-up to a nuclear attack and the effort by a team of brainy people to prevent the destruction of the U.S.

The first chapter is dramatic, tense, and nerve-wracking, so I was disappointed when the story shifted from the edge-of-your-seat landing of Russian spies witnessed by two teenagers who were not where they were supposed to be to the perspective of Katy Hume, an extremely smart woman who serves in the Intentions of the Enemy Group within the Atomic Energy Commission. Katy and a handful of men are tasked with determining what the Russians are up to, their objective being to avert potential nuclear war. As the only woman in the group, she has to deal with sexism and the attention of two men who are both in love with her. Yawn. While they eventually figure out the Russian plan of attack, there's a lot of fairly dry description of their discussions and Katy dealing with men, both those in love with her and those who talk down to her.

While the people in the Intentions of the Enemy Group are dickering about what's of concern and what's not, planes are disappearing. Are they suffering from metal fatigue or has something else gone wrong that's causing them to crash? Could it be sabotage?

The knowledge of the teenagers on the beach, the investigation of the blown-up planes, the predictions of the Intentions Group, and the actions of a traitor who runs a bank all eventually intersect and once that happens and you realize that the clock is ticking, the book becomes pretty suspenseful, again. But, parts of Forbidden Area are a bit of a slog. Still, I enjoyed it immensely, once I got over my slump and when I closed the book I was so satisfied that I looked to see what else Pat Frank wrote that's still available.

Highly recommended - Although it could be slow and at least one of the storylines was protracted, Forbidden Area is also occasionally heart-pounding and it has that, "You know enough to want to holler at the characters to just freaking look over there" attribute (fun, but nerve-wracking). So, it's really satisfying when the threads eventually are tied together.

After reading my review of Alas, Babylon, I'm pretty sure Forbidden Area is almost on par with the classic post-apocalyptic novel that is so much better known. You do have to be patient with the slower sections, but it's worth sticking out.

©2019 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Forty Autumns by Nina Willner

First sentence:

I was five years old when I learned that my grandmother lived behind a curtain. 

Forty Autumns: A Family's Story of Courage and Survival on Both Sides of the Berlin Wall by Nina Willner is the story of a large German family, from just after the end of WWII to the present day, with emphasis on the four decades that the family was split apart by the Iron Curtain.

Only one child in the family managed to escape East Germany and it took her three attempts. While Hanna got a job in the West and was able to advance at work and eventually marry and move to the United States, the rest of her family lived through hardship and desperation, often hungry, standing in line for hours to obtain necessities, always in danger of being arrested if a neighbor or friend suspected them of saying or doing something subversive against the government. The author, Nina Willner, is one of Hanna's children.

The book begins with the end of WWII in 1945 and the division of Berlin. While families waited for the men to come home, American, British, and Soviet troops divided Germany. There were rumors of atrocities committed by the Soviets, so when the American troops pulled out of the area where Hanna's family lived, some German citizens either left with the soldiers or tried to send their daughters away.

The reality of Soviet occupation and what was to come was immediate. Everyone was told they must turn in all their food to be equally divided and anyone who hid food would be shot. But, the food was never divided and redistributed as promised, so the Soviets brought hunger. That was just the beginning of life in East Germany. Forty Autumns is a well-rounded family biography that takes you through the entire 40 years, till the family was finally reunited after the fall of the Berlin Wall, including the years that the author worked as a U.S. Army intelligence officer serving in Berlin during the Cold War. There are some tense scenes in which she describes various missions into East Berlin.

Highly Recommended - History buffs and fans of memoir, particularly anyone with a fascination for the Cold War, will enjoy this meticulously researched story of a single family in which the author compares and contrasts life behind and outside the Berlin Wall. Included are maps, a Family and Historical Chronology (a comparative timeline that shows what was happening historically and within the author's family), photographs, and epilogue describing what's happened since the fall of the wall, an extensive bibliography, and index.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.

Spies in the Family by Eva Dillon

Spies in the Family: An American Spymaster, His Russian Crown Jewel, and the Friendship that Helped End the Cold War is part memoir, part spy story about a CIA operative, Paul Dillon, and a Russian spy he handled. That spy, Dmitri Polyakov, was possibly the most important GRU agent ever "turned" by the CIA and the author is the daughter of the CIA operative who worked with him. Eva Dillon weaves her personal story in with the information she learned through personal interviews and extensive reading. But, the focus of the book is on the relationship mentioned in the subtitle: the people the two spies interacted with, the methods of their spycraft, the occasional betrayals and deaths of various spies, and what became of Paul Dillon and Dmitri Polyakov.

I was impressed with the readability of this particular work of nonfiction. Books about intelligence operations can be surprisingly dry or convoluted, but I never had any trouble at all discerning the relationships, remembering the real-life characters and distinguishing them from each other, following the use of various spying tools and methods, etc. In fact, the Cold War is a time period I tend to avoid because the little I've read has been too dry for me.

Not Spies in the Family. The story was told well and felt complete but left me wanting to read more about the Cold War era, particularly espionage memoirs of a similar nature. There's an extensive list of references in the back of the book and I may need to scratch down a few titles before I send my ARC on to Eldest (who is besotted with the Cold War era in the way I am with WWII). Kiddo has been begging me to read a biography of CIA Director William Casey that he loved, as well, and while I've been lukewarm about the subject matter and brushed him off for several years, I've moved the book to my bedroom TBR. My interest in Cold War spying has definitely been piqued.

Highly recommended - A well-written, easily digestible story of two spies, their families, the agencies in which they worked, and the methods they used. Really enjoyed this read and found it was easy to keep all the characters straight. I particularly found the communication methods and tools fascinating. And, I enjoyed reading about what it was like being the daughter of a spy, moving from post to post, while not aware of what her father's job entailed. I gave Spies in the Family 5 stars at Goodreads.


©2018 Nancy Horner. All rights reserved. If you are reading this post at a site other than Bookfoolery or its RSS feed, you are reading a stolen feed. Email bookfoolery@gmail.com for written permission to reproduce text or photos.