Somewhere, my love, is a literary and political thriller more compelling than The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott, but I haven’t seen a competitor in a long, long time. The plot revolves around efforts in the 1950s by the CIA to smuggle Boris Pasternak’s novel, Dr. Zhivago, into Russia, where the agency hoped its central theme of individualism and the desire for freedom from oppression, government interference, etc. would inspire transformational change in the hearts and minds of everyday Russian citizens. Or something like that. We still live in hope.
There is some evidence that the CIA covert actions behind the dissemination of the novel were, in fact, true. Having read many years ago Bob Woodward’s book, Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, not much about the CIA actions during William Casey’s tenure (and that of Bill “Wild Bill” Donovan and others before him) surprises me. I distinctly remember events like the illegal mining of harbors in Nicaragua while Reagan nodded off in staff meetings. But I digress….
The construction of the novel is like a medieval passion play, with vignette after vignette passing before you, all contributing to the plot and pacing, and all from multiple perspectives. (Sometimes this was a little confusing as you ciphered out sudden shifts in voice.) There are even multiple scenes from the viewpoint of the CIA Typing Pool, whose members were clacking away in the postwar years on top-secret minutes and reports. Not to give too much away, but one of the CIA Directors raped a typist in one scene, egregious enough, even in fiction. (The CIA sponsorship of the overthrow of the government of Chile and the related death of Allende, was, alas, all too true. Happily, the buzzer sounded on most of this cowboy stuff with the Iran Contra hearings….)
The novel includes scenes of the private lives of Pasternak and his family, featuring prominently his muse and mistress, Olga Ivinskaya, in so far as these scenes related to the ultimate theme of publishing Dr. Zhivago. A leitmotif of the novel was the effort to get the novel published in Russia against a backdrop of fusty, often invisible, impenetrable government censors and bureaucrats. The gulag and exile were very much real and imagined presences. The novel was actually published first in Italy, after being smuggled out of Russia in manuscript form with the complicity of Pasternak himself. Fortunately for the world of letters, the Italian publisher recognized its value to the world of ideas, validated by the eventual awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Pasternak. (Not to complicate the story any more than is necessary, but he originally refused the prize, bowing to Communist Party pressure and threats against the artist and his family and associates.)
If you like literature and stories of bringing a work to publication, this is the best tale since Guttenberg. Entertainment Weekly said, “Prescott combines Mad Men-esque period style with a spy story worthy of John le Carre.” Publisher’s Weekly wrote, “Through lucid images and vibrant storytelling, Prescott creates an edgy postfeminist vision of the Cold War, encompassing Sputnik to glasnost, typing pool to Gulag, for a smart, lively page-turner. This debut shines as spy story, publication thriller, and historical romance with a twist.”
This novel was indeed Precott’s first book. The author, 37 when the novel was published in 2019, spent much of her pre-writing career working on Democratic political campaigns, assisting with the campaigns of Rahm Emanuel in Chicago and Jerry Brown in California and others, helping with speechwriting and position papers, etc. (She has a Master’s degree in Political Science from American University). But ultimately the urge to write led her to drop these endeavors to enroll in the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas, where, in the course of her studies there, conceived the nuclear idea for this novel. I found two things about this period of particular interest. First, she was rejected the first time she applied for graduate admission to the University of Texas but re-applied successfully a year later. And early on in the writing of the book, a high- profile literary agent told her, “No one is interested in Russia anymore.” She ultimately sold the book for $2 million, and it has been optioned for a movie. I guess the agent was wrong.
She’s now exploring a new novel related to the Depression-era Federal Writer’s Project. The New York Times said Prescott is also “fascinated by the world of fake news—who writes it, and why and how it spreads. She’d love to chronicle her dream candidate Elizabeth Warren on the campaign trail…” (Read Warren’s book, A Fighting Chance, as I did and you’ll see why.)
Read The Secrets We Kept at least once. You’ll be glad you did.
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Popular Highlights in this book
We unveil ourselves in the pieces we want others to know, even those closest to us. We all have our secrets.Highlighted by 824 Kindle readers- Secretary: a person entrusted with a secret. From the Latin secretus, secretum. We all typed, but some of us did more. We spoke no word of the work we did after we covered our typewriters each day. Unlike some of the men, we could keep our secrets.Highlighted by 731 Kindle readers
- Frank Wisner was the boss under the big boss, and the father of the Agency’s clandestine ops.Highlighted by 478 Kindle readers
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Reviews with images
A Dramatic Historical Fiction Account of the Publication of Dr. Zhivago
The Secrets We KeptA dramatic and entertaining debut novel of love and intrigue.SUMMARY A young quiet Russian-American secretary, Irina is plucked from the CIA typing pool and given the assignment of a lifetime. Her mission is to help smuggle a book, Doctor Zhivago into the USSR, where it is banned, because of its portrayal of life under Communism.Mentoring Irina is Sally Forrester: a glamorous seasoned spy who has honed her gift for deceit. Under Sally’s tutelage, Irina learns how to blend in and make drops—and she discovers deeply buried truths about herself.The novel combines the legendary literary love story between Dr. Zhivago author Pasternak and his mistress and muse, Olga Ivinskaya, with a narrative about two women destined to lead lives of intrigue and risk.REVIEWI felt an instantaneous connection to this book The novel starts with Irina stressing on her way to a job interview and typing test at the CIA. My mother started working for the FBI in Washington DC in 1941. She has a similar amusing story of how stressed she was leading up to the interview and the typing test,THE SECRETS WE KEPT is a dramatic and entertaining debut novel of love and intrigue. It’s a period piece of spycraft at the height of the Cold War. I particularly appreciated the feminist roles of the three lead characters, Irina, Sally and Olga.The writing was good but the ever changing narrators threw me for a loop in the first part of the book., There is a lot going on in the book with a vast array of characters, so you will need to stay alert. The story is like a patchwork quilt of people, places and times stitched together into an interesting story. Note that some of the patches may still be missingOne of my favorite parts was Olga’s arrests and incarceration in the Russian gulag for refusing to reveal the subject of Pasternak’s novel. Her perseverance and willingness to stand by her man was noteworthy.Author Lara Prescott received her MFA from the University of Texas 2018. She is named after Lara’s character in Dr Zhivago. When she read a newspaper article in 2014 about how the CIA used the book to undermine the Soviet Union she decided to research the subject further, ultimately writing this novel.
Top reviews from other countries
J. v. Kirchbach
Sadly below expectations ...
Reviewed in Germany on October 20, 2019
