As is easily discernible by its title, this book is about love, life and...well...spies. And the living people who do the loving, living and spying. And it's published by AnthroposophicalPublications.org. What? Don't worry, you'll soon find out why.
We begin in East Berlin during the Cold War and focus immediately on Judith Baumgartner when she is told by her spymaster boss that she is to move to West Berlin as a false defector, married to a young officer in the East German army, whom she meets for the first time then and there. Judith is a loyal communist, and does as she is told, and does her spying well.
She is one end of the love-story bookcase. The other end is a young American named Marvin Jacks, from Brooklyn, who is drafted into the U.S. Army, does basic training in Kentucky, and is then sent to the Army Language School in Monterey, California to learn Russian, just in case that rather difficult language is ever needed. He is then sent to Germany and asigned to Military Intelligence, where German linguists are needed, not Russian ones. Marvin, the other book-end, is a loyal American, but not much of a spy.
So the stage is set: two spies, one an East German woman and the other an American man, working for opposing clandestine services, who meet in fateful situations in San Francisco, Frankfurt, Buenos Aires, Paraguay and back to Germany in what may or may not result in a happy ending.
The author's style might be called Hemingway-like, if we wish to flatter him (me). For example Marvin Jacks, who had been Judith's Military Intelligence interrogator in Frankfurt, West Germany, is told to gain her confidence in order to determine whether she and her husband are really defectors as they claim, or are in fact East German spies, which Marvin's superior suspects.
The meeting came off splendidly. Jacks went to the Bockenheimer flea market the following Saturday in civvies. It was big and he didn’t look out of place for there were other Americans there, servicemen looking for bargains. He saw her at a used books stand concentrating on a book she was leafing through. He strolled to the other side of the same stand until he was directly across from her. The book she held was the first volume of Goethe’s Complete Works. He leaned across and picked up the second volume and opened it. She saw his hand do it and looked up.
“Lt. Jacks!” she exclaimed.
He looked up innocently and pretended to be trying to place her. Then, “Frau Cornelius, [she was using a cover name of course] what a surprise!” He walked around the stand and they shook hands.
“Are you interested in Goethe?” she asked him.
“I’d like to be more interested, but he’s a bit difficult for me, I need a dictionary at my elbow.”
She laughed. “It’s a good way to improve your German.”
“Undoubtedly. Are you going to buy that book?”
“No, the dealer will only sell the complete set. He’s right of course. Why break it up?”
Jacks saw his opening. “Oh? How much does he want?” The dealer, a skinny little man with a huge mustache, was watching them from his seat at the opposite corner of the stand. He smelled a sale.
“A hundred marks" she said. "That’s frightfully expensive for used books.”
“It depends on how you look at it" Marvin said. "If they were new they’d cost a lot more, and the words are the same.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she said. “And they are quite beautiful, pre-war of course.”
“Wait here,” Jacks told her. He went over to the dealer, greeted him cordially as one must, and asked if he could reserve the complete set with twenty marks, that he would return the next day with the rest of the money.
“Jawohl, Mein Herr, you certainly may,” the dealer said and held out his hand. Jacks gave him the twenty and he took a piece of cardboard from his pocket, printed GEKAUFT on it, and placed it on the center volume of the set. Jacks wondered if he could get the money back as confidential funds, but immediately decided against asking. She isn’t a spy, for God’s sake.
“I’ll pay him the rest tomorrow and the first volume is yours,” he told her when he was again at her side.
“But Lt. Jacks, I couldn’t accept that. Besides, you’ll want to keep the set complete.”
“Maybe you can help me with Goethe’s German in return.” She smiled, but didn’t answer.
“How about a coffee?”
She looked at her watch and said, “I have to go now, but…When will you pick up the books?”
“It’s Sunday tomorrow, so any time really.”
“Twelve?”
“Fine, it’s a date.”
“Auf Wiedersehen, Lt. Jacks,” she said and gave him her hand.
“Auf Wiedersehen, Frau Cornelius.” He watched her walk away. Not the Germanic type at all, he thought. Dark hair, petite, beautiful in her way.
They met the next day at the book stall, he paid the remainder of the money to the dealer, who wrapped the ten volumes in two packages. She took one, he the other, and they walked off together. It was cold and they were thankful for the warm gemütlich café. Jacks ordered brandy with their coffee. She poured hers into the coffee and insisted that he try it. He did. They stayed there over an hour. One thing led to another. He asked her about her plans now in the West. She said that her husband was thinking of joining the army if they would recognize his commission. She had applied at several places as a secretary, but she had the impression that there was a certain prejudice against people from the East, so it wasn’t easy. She also admitted that she was thinking of leaving her husband. He was so, well, military. It wasn’t his fault really, but now that she was free, she wanted to be completely so. After a half-dozen brandies they went to a nearby hotel and spent another hour there under the eiderdown. Jack had fallen – hard. He rented the room on Hamburger Allee and they met there almost every day for a month. Then she disappeared.
Just as Jacks came on to her in order to gain intelligence, she had accepted his advances for the same reason. Did they really fall in love? Aha! Good question.
The question really asked is whether such a love is viable under such complicated and adverse geopolitical circumstances. Or was it meant to be according to karma's blueprint. The answer is not definitive, although it is implied and left up to the reader's guess and wish.
The thwarted romance comes to life years later in Argentina where Marvin Jacks, no longer a soldier, is now a inspector for the International Air Transport Association assigned to Buenos Aires, where he is again surprised to encounter Judith, still a spy, now called Frau Marie.
From then on the tale winds down, or up, to Judith escaping from the Argentine equivalent of the FBI, accompanied by Marvin, via Paraguay to the United States and into the hands of the CIA. No, it doesn't end there. Waldorf School education is featured both in Buenos Aires, the U.S. and, finally. Germany, where ... But I can't give it all away now, can I?
And guess what. Just in case you're wondering what this book review about a love affair and spies is doing here in SouthernCrossReview.org of all places,
you may also wonder how I have the balls to review my own book and publish it in my own journal. Well, aside from the usual egotism, nobody else has done so. Furthermore, my publisher AnthroposophicalPublications.org needs to sell more books in order continue his more serious and valuable esoteric mission. We feel that you, dear reader, will appreciate reading something more light-hearted and amorous than the usual anthroposophical offerings, which have been known to put some people to sleep. Not you of course