My Father's Secret War
a memoir
by Lucinda Franks
Hyperion Books, 2007
I added this book to my Lazy Person's Reading Group list because I thought it would complement the other spy books I've been reading. I learned much about covert operations during World War II, but for me, the important lesson involved character development.
Lucinda Frank's father, Thomas Franks, was a spy for the US Navy during WWII, a fact not known to his family or friends. Like many soldiers returning from WWII, Tom Franks hoped to forget the atrocities he'd witnessed and refused to speak of them. In addition, he'd been ordered to secrecy. His daughter, Lucinda Franks, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, wheedled parts of the story out of him, battling his reticence and age-related memory loss.
I was taken by this quote that ends a description of a family Thanksgiving dinner.
"Chatter and clatter and wine corks popping and everything is normal except that the quiet, unassuming gentleman pushing in the chairs of the women has taught people to kill in cold blood."
Many characters harbor secrets, and how they choose to conceal them provides a goldmine for writers.
3 comments:
If you have never read it and can find it in your local library, "Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero" by Anthony Cave Brown is a great book on the creation of the OSS, and later, the CIA. Published in 1982 by Times Books, I think the book deserves to be read today by anyone interested in the security of this country.
Thanks, Wyman.
I just checked my library's online catalog, and they didn't have "Wild Bill Donovan" but they did have "Treason in the blood : H. St. John Philby, Kim Philby, and the spy case of the century" by Anthony Cave Brown. I'll start there and keep looking for Wild Bill.
Ha ha ha! I guess he likes to write about spys and spying. Thank you for this bit of information. Interlibrary loan might be the way to get the book I suggested, but the book is long and I think they only allow you 2 weeks on interlibrary loan.
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