Books of the Day (2 cents)

1. The International Spy Museum has occasional noontime book signings and lectures, and I have attended a handful. They are, of course, free, as opposed to the museum which charges a hefty admission (I have never been in the museum).

Yesterday, the speaker was Bill Gertz, Washington Times reporter who concentrates on espionage, and writes from a (whether it is accurate or not) right wing paranoid perspective. His newest book, published last fall, is called "Enemies", not to be confused with the Isaac B. Singer book of the same title.

The books contains a series of chapters, each concentrating on someone spying, or allegedly spying, against America. The premise is "they are out to get us, we are out to stop them, they are competent, and we are not", or something like that.

The stories are all interesting, of course, from Wen Ho Lee (who he believes is guilty as sin), Katrina Leung and her lovers in the American intelligence establishment, spies from Cuba, from North Korea, from everywhere. Are they accurate? I am not sure.

He was written a lot about China: "The only reason they want nuclear weapons is to fight a war with us eventually".

What about Israeli spies? Well, those he thinks are more "friendly spies". You don't want them spying on us, but you also don't want to hurt the Israelis' feelings because we cooperate with them so well. "They are good on human spying; we on electronics", he said.

My own instinct of course is to be very suspicious of Gertz's dogmatic conclusions, but - especially because he is talking about undercover and counterintelligence - I find it hard to dismiss anything he has to say entirely.

2. Leaving the Spy Museum, I walked over to 7th Street. I wanted a place to get a light lunch, and I thought about the cafe at Olson's, a book store. To my surprise, though, every table was filled, and on my way out, I stopped to look over some of the new books. I found a signed copy of Tatyana Tolstaya's new collection of short stories in soft-back (I think perhaps there is no hardcover edition) and bought it. I then took it to Jaleo's where I sat at the bar and had a very nice salad (spinach, cheese, red peppers and walnuts)for less than you pay at Cosi's. I read the first story, "Loves Me, Loves Me Not", told by a precocious 5 year old Leningrader, talking about her French speaking, old and overweight nanny. Which was great. Twenty three more stories to go.

3. We went to see Tova Reich speak about her new book, "My Holocaust" last night at Politics and Prose. Reich has written a satirical book on the commercialization of the Holocaust. Two Polish survivors make a lot of money leading tours through Auschwitz and Birkenau, but one of their daughters has become a nun at the local Carmelite convent. One of the survivors becomes the head of the D.C. Holocaust Museum, and becomes under pressure to expand the museum to cover the "holocausts" of other groups. There is a museum takeover lead by African American Pushkin Jones, of the United Holocausts association. Etc.

Her reading shows that her writing is very clever. She brings up a large number of points that are worthy of discussion and debate. She says that she is against the commercialization of the Holocaust, that there are too many museums and monuments, and that the dead should be permitted to rest in peace. She also believes that the Holocaust is THE Holocaust, and it is a Jewish thing, belonging to no one else.

But wait a minute. Her husband, Walter, was the director of the Holocaust Museum here. And what is this book if not an attempt to capitalize on the commericialization of the Holocaust? Or am I missing something? Perhaps. It could be that she has written "My Holocaust" as the commercialization to end all commercializations. I guess.

Am I being critical? Not at all. I think I'll read the book.