Lion Eyes

by Claire Berlinski

Of Claire Berlinski’s marvelous debut novel, Loose Lips–a perfect blend of satire, romance, and suspense featuring a young female CIA operative–book critic Frank Bascombe “It’s more than a little obvious that [protagonist] Selena Keller is Claire Berlinski.” Despite her assertions to the contrary, Berlinski isn’t above poking fun at that notion in her hilarious and intriguing new novel.

In Lion Eyes, a fictional Claire–the author of a novel about love among young CIA trainees–is unsuccessfully dodging a deadly Paris heat wave and her even deadlier ex-boyfriend. When she receives an e-mail from an Iranian admirer who wonders how to obtain a copy of Loose Lips in his native city of Esfahan, Claire wastes no time in replying. Her correspondence with the mysterious stranger, Arsalan–whose name means “the Lion” in Persian–quickly becomes personal, then intimate . . . then obsessive.

As Claire heads to Istanbul to find relief from the heat, her electronic flirtation with Arsalan begins, inevitably, to consume her. The boundary between reality and her imagination blurs and then disappears. The Lion, meanwhile, is nurturing his own powerful fantasies about the author. To satisfy their growing passion, they agree to meet, back in Paris, but Claire soon learns that someone is secretly intercepting their communications.

Suddenly, Claire’s romantic dreams start to dissolve. As events take an unimagined turn, and as life begins menacingly to imitate art, Claire discovers that the Lion is not who she thinks he is.

Clever and witty, Lion Eyes showcases intriguing characters, exotic locales, snappy double entendres, clever spy games, and the forbidden pleasure of reading other people’s mail. Claire Berlinski (the real Claire Berlinshi, that is) expertly plots out chance and chase, love and lies, and brings it all together with intelligence, counterintelligence, and a dossier full of humor.

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2007

About the author

CLAIRE BERLINSKI WAS born in 1968 in California, and grew up in New York, Seattle and California. She received her undergraduate degree in Modern History and her doctorate in International Relations from Balliol College at Oxford University. She has since lived and worked in Britain, Thailand, Laos, France, and Turkey as a journalist, academic, consultant and freelance writer.

Reviews

[Gerri · Rating 4 out of 5]

* This was the follow-up from the author's first novel, LOOSE LIPS. Both stories were intriguing, making me wonder if the author had really participated in the CIA. LION EYES was more colorful though with incredible descriptions of the characters' whereabouts with humorous emotional outcomes. Don't want to share any spoilers.

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Berlinski is doing interesting things with the novel, and it's a fun, funny read.

[vida · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun quick read- well written and really entertaining!

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those rare books that made me laugh out loud.

[Flo · Rating 5 out of 5]

A terrific fun whacky read

Claire Berlinski stars in her own novel--a wonderful, funny, delightful spoof of the world of spies. There's mystery, thrills, romance and a laugh on nearly every page. I loved it so much I'll read it again in 3 months. Get it. It's so much fun and Berlinski, like her brother, Mischa, is a marvelous writer.

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a strange story but I enjoyed it! Didn’t see the twist coming at all but I also haven’t read Loose Lips so maybe that’s why.

[Creativeuser15 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was nice, written in a different format than most "semi-romance" novels. Interesting plot, and culturally rich. The one thing that I just couldn't stand was the author's attempt to constantly shove down my throat, the endless marketing/advertising/reference to her other "amazing book." I'm sorry but you can't hypnotize anyone with half a brain to read your book, no matter how many times you forced to convince them with irrelevant relevancy that it belongs to be discussed in every single chapter. I am not exaggerating, in every chapter, the title of her other book will be shoved down your throat. Before starting this book, I saw in the author paragraph description that she had written another book, and I was interested in reading it, but halfway through reading her book I wanted to close this book and throw it out the window because of the annoying "read my other amazing book" reference buzzing in my ear. In the end, really great authors are a little more humble with their talent, and do not need to advertise themselves every minute in order to hook readers into becoming interested in their other books. The constant book name dropping only convinced me to lose interest in any of her other books, cause goodness forbid I am going to take another throat shoving of the remainder of her other "amazing" work. Would have appreciated you so much more if you hadn't.

[alana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Is this a new genre -- spy novel/chick lit? I think, as a genre, it doesn't work. In a spy novel, we want adventure, danger, evil and victory. In chick lit, we want humor, compassion, hot men, and victory. In this, we don't really get any of the above. I listened to this on my ipod, rather than reading, so I might have gotten a slightly different impression -- a lot of email addresses to be read, but it meant I followed the plot very closely. And the plot had some major hiccups. The beginning was kind of slow and then the end, when the surprise happens, was too quick. I think this would have worked as a chick lit novel, with a little less attempts at intrigue. But it didn't quite work for me.

[Stacie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really surprised with this book. This book deserves more attention than it's getting. Anyone who has ever fallen in love over email will enjoy this read. Claire Berlinski is a spy fiction novelist that finds herself wrapped up in her own espionage story. Her correspondance with a Persian archeologist develops into a love story with a shocking ending.

The bulk of the book is written as emails corresponding back and forth between Claire and her friends, and the mystery archeologist. It was difficult to guess what was really going on with this story. I was constantly kept guessing who was the spy. The real charm in this quick read is the beautiful descriptions of each country mentioned. This heart breaking story of trust is one that needs to be told.

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story of a fictional American author named Claire Berlinski, who lives in Paris but spends most of her time online. She befriends an Iranian archaeologist and an American CIA operative who wants to contact him. The friendship culminates in a dinner party in Paris with those two and a few other of her friends. The book is good, but I did not exactly understand how it ended and what the final outcome was. There was a lot of double crossing, and I think the Archaeologist used her to help his work. The narrator was really good.

[Tim · Rating 2 out of 5]

I purchased this book from a sale table so I wasn't expecting too much. It was okay but certainly not what I expected. I thought I was getting humour genre, but it's clearly more romance/not-sure-what-else. Lots of shameless plugs for her other book, which I really have no interest in reading. I will say I liked her writing style and she definitely has a great cast of supporting characters that could have made a funny soup if it weren't for the 'You've got mail' distraction. Strangely enough I seemed much more interested in their stories.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the wasy this author wrote because it was a mystery trying to figure out what was true in her life and what was not since she was writing from her perspective. I liked the content and the way that she tied everything together. I did not like some of the language, that's why I marked it as a 3. It's a very quick read.

[Marysue · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author wrote a non-fiction book about spies (Loose Lips). Then she writes a novel in which the main character is an author of a book about spies and who is approached by someone who believes she has spy connections. A very good read.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed this book a lot although at times it seemed to wander a bit. However, at the end, the author referenced an earlier part that makes the ending seem different than what I perceived so now I wonder if I need to read it again because I don't remember that section. Hmmmm .. .

[Kate Carlisle · Rating 3 out of 5]

really easy reading, but makes me want to fall in love with an iranian man.. or atleast live in istanbul for a couple months.

[Claudia Douris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very light read, nice book for the summer!

[Martha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Claire Berlinski, the author, is main character in her own novel

[Ellen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened on CD on my AZ/NM roadtrip. Entertaining, colorful locations (Paris and Istanbul) but not great writing or plot. Did not like the ending.

[Miriam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the story line but hated the ending. It had some language and weird stuff. Not one I will be reading again.

[Tori]

2009- Confusing, especially the ending.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a cool book - a spy novel, from a chick-lit POV. A quick read, a satisfying ending. Loved it.

[Blackbackgull · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hilarious!

[Trudy Nye · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, humorous but a little scattered. Still, I enjoyed it.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some nicely done humor, but the constant doublespeak and high meta loses its charm quickly.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

holy crap she did it again

[Ruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked it but also not sure I understood the ending. I hate that.

[Sheila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous spy novel located in Europe.