Espionage Lit

Aleksandar Hemon reviews Frederick Hitz’s The Great Game: The Myth and Reality of Espionage for Slate. Hitz’s research into spy literature leads him to conclude that “no fictional account adequately captures the remarkable variety of twists and turns that a genuine human spy goes through.” But, Hemon, argues, that is completely missing the point of fiction. Good spy novels, Hemon says (and I agree) present readers with problems that are primarily moral. Books by Graham Greene, John LeCarre, even Rudyard Kipling are brought to bear on this issue. Read the article here. Oddly enough, Hemon’s referred to as a novelist in the credits, rather than as a short-story writer.