The Spy Novelist's Job Is Trickier Under Trump

Joseph Finder writes spy novels, and he observes in a Washington Post op-ed that the "great John le Carre had it much easier" decades ago. After all, le Carre specialized in the Cold War, when the Russians—or least Russian leaders—were undisputed villains. "The gift of the Cold War, in entertainment anyway, was its stability—nothing changed; it seemed frozen in place." Today, things are much different, and more complicated. Views of Russia within the US are now a "point of fracture," writes Finder. The shift might be embodied in a T-shirt worn by a supporter of Donald Trump at a 2018 rally that read, "I'd rather be Russian than Democrat."

The problem in all this is that Finder worries that modern spy novels, or TV series, aren't
"rising to the challenge of this fraught moment." Too many are ignoring Russia altogether out of fear of alienating audiences, and the genre could suffer as a result:

• "Indeed, when half the country sees Russia as a mortal enemy and the other sees it as a potential ally, international intrigue may become a way to examine our own divisions—to dig under the surface and portray life under two oligarchies, say. To delve into the issues that affect us, that actually matter. Maybe that's how spy fictions can help us understand not just our adversaries but ourselves."

(Read the full op-ed.)