Views From Two Wars
The Irregulars is a book about a group of men who did some spy work before and during America's participation in World War II. The hook is that it focuses on Roald Dahl, the writer of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and friends. The friends include Ian Fleming (James Bond writer), Roger Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather PR firm), Noel Coward (Design for Living - and other things, but we just saw that play), and many, many more. They were all lovely, tall, good looking Brits who had some difficulty behaving in uniform. They were sent to the US to push the British point of view, spy on German sympathizers, and plant false information. The spy stuff is very limited in this book. It is mostly about who they knew and slept with, what they drank, how they messed up. If you know any of this stuff it is not very interesting. I kept waiting for them to DO something. It is a long wait with little payoff.
The other book is In Morocco by Edith Wharton. Wharton is invited to tour Morocco during World War I. The war is not happening here, but it affects things a bit. She is there in 1917, the French are hip-deep in the war, but they are the colonizers of Morocco, so their presence is felt. It would be great to take this book on a trip to Morocco to see how things have changed or remained the same. She has interesting insights into the history, religion, culture, architecture, geography, etc. of the region. One of the reasons is that there are no travel guides of the area at that time. She says this can't be a travel guide because her circumstances are a bit different, friends in government, etc. and she is moving too fast. The moving too fast is due to the war. But she covers a lot of the country and has insightful comments. I'd love to hear from someone who has been to Morocco recently (and reads this book) to tell me how things compare now. I bet they all have Tivo and Iphones.
The Irregulars is a book about a group of men who did some spy work before and during America's participation in World War II. The hook is that it focuses on Roald Dahl, the writer of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and friends. The friends include Ian Fleming (James Bond writer), Roger Ogilvy (Ogilvy & Mather PR firm), Noel Coward (Design for Living - and other things, but we just saw that play), and many, many more. They were all lovely, tall, good looking Brits who had some difficulty behaving in uniform. They were sent to the US to push the British point of view, spy on German sympathizers, and plant false information. The spy stuff is very limited in this book. It is mostly about who they knew and slept with, what they drank, how they messed up. If you know any of this stuff it is not very interesting. I kept waiting for them to DO something. It is a long wait with little payoff. 
The other book is In Morocco by Edith Wharton. Wharton is invited to tour Morocco during World War I. The war is not happening here, but it affects things a bit. She is there in 1917, the French are hip-deep in the war, but they are the colonizers of Morocco, so their presence is felt. It would be great to take this book on a trip to Morocco to see how things have changed or remained the same. She has interesting insights into the history, religion, culture, architecture, geography, etc. of the region. One of the reasons is that there are no travel guides of the area at that time. She says this can't be a travel guide because her circumstances are a bit different, friends in government, etc. and she is moving too fast. The moving too fast is due to the war. But she covers a lot of the country and has insightful comments. I'd love to hear from someone who has been to Morocco recently (and reads this book) to tell me how things compare now. I bet they all have Tivo and Iphones.
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