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Jan. 10th, 2013 12:35 pmTHWARTED BY LIBRARIES. And partially by overly-detailed scholarship.
"Classical Spies" by Susan Heuck Allen is, in what appears to be the tradition for books about non-military concerns during WWII, incredibly dense. It purports to be about American archaeologists working for the OSS, the American espionage agency during the war. Before I had to send it back to the library I got to page ninety-something, at which point nobody had actually done any spying yet.
As a history of the war's effect on Greece, it's superb; it's incredibly detailed as to troop movements and social attitudes as first Italy and then Germany-plus-Bulgaria and then possibly Italy again, I'm not sure, invaded the country. It's a fairly compelling read, though I suspect it would be more so had I any actual interest in the war in Greece.
Almost everybody one knew in Athens was sheltering British...Not only the rich, but also the very poor...one Greek girl, a hospital nurse who had a New Zealander in her home, [answered], 'As long as we have one potato, we can cut it in half.' -p. 64, quoting Rodney Young
As a history of actual espionage, it leaves something to be desired. I'm sure once she gets to the espionage it'll be very well-researched and informative, but if you're writing about espionage, you may want to get to the part where the espionage happens before your reader is a third of the way into the book. The first few chapters could have been summed up in a few heavily footnoted paragraphs.
I know, I know. Academia is thorough, and just because I want archaeology spies doesn't mean that's all there was to the war in Greece.
I mean, I know that now, because I've just spent a hundred pages reading about the war in Greece...
"Classical Spies" by Susan Heuck Allen is, in what appears to be the tradition for books about non-military concerns during WWII, incredibly dense. It purports to be about American archaeologists working for the OSS, the American espionage agency during the war. Before I had to send it back to the library I got to page ninety-something, at which point nobody had actually done any spying yet.
As a history of the war's effect on Greece, it's superb; it's incredibly detailed as to troop movements and social attitudes as first Italy and then Germany-plus-Bulgaria and then possibly Italy again, I'm not sure, invaded the country. It's a fairly compelling read, though I suspect it would be more so had I any actual interest in the war in Greece.
Almost everybody one knew in Athens was sheltering British...Not only the rich, but also the very poor...one Greek girl, a hospital nurse who had a New Zealander in her home, [answered], 'As long as we have one potato, we can cut it in half.' -p. 64, quoting Rodney Young
As a history of actual espionage, it leaves something to be desired. I'm sure once she gets to the espionage it'll be very well-researched and informative, but if you're writing about espionage, you may want to get to the part where the espionage happens before your reader is a third of the way into the book. The first few chapters could have been summed up in a few heavily footnoted paragraphs.
I know, I know. Academia is thorough, and just because I want archaeology spies doesn't mean that's all there was to the war in Greece.
I mean, I know that now, because I've just spent a hundred pages reading about the war in Greece...
