Decidedly homophobic, but still interesting for me as I loved this author as a youth with his earlier novels _The White Rajah_ and _Castle Garac_. Ironic novel of defections in the Cold War - the two defectors are gay troublemakers; disaffected and bitter. ( )

Highly literate and readable story about a Security Officer's trials and tribulations dealing with two defectors - Smith and Jones. I read this practically in one sitting in the course of an evening, which is an endorsement of some sort. But beneath the surface polish, I'm not sure there is all that much here. The story of how the defectors are first feted at banquets, given the best seats at the opera and invited to all the right parties only to see their social standing deteriorate and their personal relationship sour, rings true but once you get past nodding your head, there is no lasting effect. The Security Officer doesn't actually do much of anything throughout the whole book but feel sorry for himself since he is the scapegoat for the defection. The most interesting scenes are when he is speaking with his counterpart on the other side. And to cap it all off, there is a "surprise" ending, which I guess had more of an effect in 1963 when this was originally published. When you encounter it, it does clear up a few troubling aspects of the story, but again, it just doesn't mean all that much. ( )

A fun book. The security agent tells a story of defectors & cold war politics. He carefully doesn't give actual details that would confirm whose politics or countries are involved (except, very late in the book, one of the defectors is complaining that "they" wouldn't publish his poetry because it is experimental.) So the upshot is that I read along assuming the narrator is American and the defected-to country is in the Eastern bloc; and the last word of the book is "Ottawa" -- so I guess it is the other way around? I think the point is that the politicians are all the same.