You Can't Hide

...your Lion Eyes.  Such is the title of Claire Berlinki's not-quite-sequel to Loose Lips.  The character around which the plot of Lion Eyes is centered is not Selena Keller, the protagonist of Loose Lips, but rather Claire Berlinski herself, or more accurately, a fictional version of her.

Set in 2004, a year after Loose Lips has been published, Berlinski is living in Paris and continuing her career as a writer and novelist when she receives an e-mail from a mysterious Iranian professor of archaeology named Arsalan Safavi.  Arsalan (whose name means "Lion" in Farsi) asks for a copy of her novel, as none are available in his home country.  Berlinski responds by e-mailing him a PDF file of her novel and then later follows that up by inadvertently sending Arsalan an e-mail wherein she laments a recent break-up. Thus begins a sequence of events taking her to Istanbul and into the heart of Middle Eastern realpolitik.

For as the fictional Berlinski soon discovers, Arsalan is not just any archeologist, he is one whom may have access to knowledge of Iran's emergent nuclear program.  The CIA soon gets involved, but the agency's mishandling of the situation, in addition to Belinski's deepening affection for Arsalan, adds a layer of complication.  Also complicating matters is Arsalan's neurotic cat, Wollef, whom he has inherited from his recently deceased mother.

As with Loose Lips, Berlinski weaves together a compelling tale populated by fascinating characters, human and, in Wollef's case, nonhuman.  I especially liked Imran Begum, an obsessively punctual clinical psychotherapist living in London with whom the fictional Berlinski e-mails with frequency.  The ability to devise a multitude of rich, contextual characters is a rare talent, and it is just one aspect of what makes Berlinski's novel so fascinating and enjoyable.

Another aspect of Berlinski's novel I liked was its showcasing of a lifestyle, a world with which I had a passing personal familiarity when I resided in Tokyo what seems like eons ago: that of the American expatriate.  Perhaps someday I will return to that lost world, but for now reading delightful stories like Berlinski's will have to suffice.

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Of course, today being the Fourth of July, I wish a Happy Independence Day to all.  I leave you with this video clip of a Marine Corps veteran singing the second verse to The Star-Spangled Banner":