Red Sparrow - The Book or the Movie?

My friend Don and I love to listen to audio books when we are on long trips. I suggested that we download John LeCarre's latest novel, "A Legacy of Spies," since we binged out on MI-5 a few years ago. But the LeCarre has been a slog and is frankly just too complex to be appreciated when driving in seasonal traffic in southwest Florida. We found that we kept replaying sections over and over again to "get it."

Then we went to the movies and caught a preview of Jennifer Lawrence's new project, "Red Sparrow." Don is no fan of JLaw but he's half in love with Charlotte Rampling who also appears in the film. We decided to give the book a try and read it simultaneously. I was a bit surprised that the author, Jason Matthews, used his own name, since he was a highly placed CIA operative for over thirty years and participated in clandestine recruitment operations around the globe. The authenticity of the novel makes for a fast-paced read that, even with some gratuitous violence, fills the bill for escapist lit.

Appropriately enough, Russia is the villain in this book. The action centers around CIA agent Nathaniel Nash, who's been the handler for a highly placed mole in the Russian bureaucracy. MARBLE, the spy, is aging and worries that his days as an informer are numbered. He would like to retire but the U.S. can't afford to relinquish this font of information.

Dominika Egorova is a Russian ballet prodigy whose talent and beauty draws the ire of her rivals, resulting in a Tonya Harding type attack which halts her career. In a humiliating fall from grace, and to ensure that her widowed mother is supported, Dominika follows her uncle's advice and applies for the Sparrow program in which young women are trained in the art of seduction in order to elicit information for Russian intelligence services.

Matthews often allows his condescending opinions of Russian spycraft to leak through his narrative, a common fault of Americans to underestimate our rivals, and one that we've recently learned can be truly detrimental to democracy. But the author does proffer the interesting premise that Dominika was born with a neurological disorder called synesthesia which enables her to read body language, see auras, and excel at math and languages. Not satisfied with being a glorified prostitute, Dominika parlays her intuitive talents into government promotions that put her and Nash on a collision course.

Several secondary characters stand out in this thriller, both Russian and American, and trying to decipher who's the valuable mole was great fun. I'm not sure if Don or I figured it out first. But what some reviewers found to be a distraction we most delighted in. Each chapter centered around a meal. I thought it was a device of the author's to indicate that no matter how close one is to danger, even death, the urge to nurture our bodies and enliven our conversations around the sharing of food never slackens. At the end of each chapter the author shares the recipe for whatever was eaten by his characters. Even in a safe house, awaiting news of an operation, Dominika recreates her family's comfort foods.

"Red Sparrow" is the first in a trilogy. I moved on to other realms but Don is sticking with it and promises that I'll soon be having Chicken Kiev for dinner. The film will be released next week. It may not be as cerebral as LeCarre but it will keep you up past your bedtime.