Agent Zigzag: A True Story of Nazi Espionage, Love, and Betrayal
By: Ben MacIntyre / Narrated By: John Lee
Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
A smarmy, schmoozy, amoral… Hero?!? This is so entertaining as To DIE For!!!
This is the wonderful thing about m’ husband and me: He reads aloud, wonderful books (We’ve done ooooodles of vast tomes!), and I kick back and scarf trail mix, enjoying the beJESus outta m’self as I listen to his fine performances. Now, we’re listening to one o’ my much loved Military Histories, by Giles Milton. So Huzzah for that!
We juuuust had a conversation where I rambled on about Milton’s ability to take a huuuuuge subject and break it down into all its working components (It’s ALL about the people of history!) and then compile it into some side-splitting, edge-of-your-seat adventure, all whilst being sooo entertaining and uproarious.
Now, I’d loved Operation Mincemeat by Ben MacIntyre, so tho’ I did not do a Milton this go-round, I was indeed rather hopeful upon starting Agent Zigzag. As I became sooo engrossed in it, I offered to m’ husband that, yeh, while Milton does the HUGE to bite-sized, MacIntyre takes the SMALL and makes it huuuuge. Mincemeat was a little-known story which became a masterful Who Did What and How On Gosh’s Green Earth could it work out in the end? sorta thing. And now? Here?
Oh here, dear Accomplice, MacIntyre takes a single man, Eddie Chapman, opens with a scene where he’s wining and dining his (Current) paramour, sees ominous men in brown coats and hats wander into the hotel’s dining room, and he hotfoots it outta the window… uhm… the CLOSED window… ka-POW and SHATTER as he flies through glass and scoots like crazy.
Ahhhhh, and with John Lee’s masterful Shakespearean narration which manages to blend drama with inCREDibly tongue-in-cheek written humor, we’re off to a grand start that culminates with noooot quite 11-hours of nonstop enjoyment!
Eddie Chapman is a Brit who just can’t seem to settle down. A con man who starts with petty theft, moves to breaking and entering, then settles on stealing and blowing up safes (With occasional lewd acts performed in public), he’s just up for ANYthing, and the settled-way is NOT his way. Soon, stints in prison start cropping up, and misdeeds on the Jersey Isles land him in jail, serving time, as he’s sooooorely peeved, until the Nazis invade. He and a buddy soon, in their peevishness with England, offer their services as spies.
But things go truly awry, and he and his buddy are sent to a Hostage Prison falsely accused of sabotage. -BUT- all the studying of languages and what have you, his various crimes and misdemeanors (AND felonies!), get him noticed, and he’s offered a job as a spy. Which he loves, and where he comes to truly value his friendships with rather notorious Germans.
Then there’s all the bits of parachuting into Great Britain, showing up and offering all he knows, getting turned into a Double Agent, and his various breathtaking adventures and near-misses.
Oh, and add a LOT of necessary jaunts off to seek feminine relaxation; the man can’t help himself. His libido is HUGE, his desire to woo and to charm is endless, and he’s just a flat-out Ladies Man Extraordinaire, leaving a woman He’ll Love And Will ALWAYS Come Back For in every country.
I canNOT begin to describe how entertaining, how engagingly written this work of meticulous research is. There are continual escapades where we, the listeners, are just as clueless about Eddie’s motives as, say, his British handlers are. If something is asked of him? Chapman will DO IT, AND DO IT PROPERLY… but he might be picking your pockets even as he does so. He finds opportunities to commit mayhem, he can’t help but brag about his boldness and abilities, and every now and again he gets sooo depressed and wonders if his Life Has Been Worth ANYthing… that he goes off, takes to his bed, and he sulks most mightily. Up and down, up and down, and the listener is left wondering about his exact state of mental equilibrium, like, quite often. Still, he’s beYONd articulate, and smooth, and he’s just so goshdarned amiable, has such quips and comments as to render him hiLARious.
Written with such humor even as some drop-dead horrifically serious events are covered, John Lee captures and conveys it all, even Eddie’s uncultured tones, so unlike the urbane Uber-educated tones of his handlers… uhm, on BOTH sides of the war. Lee keeps up his pace as things get fraught, and he smooths things out when, say, Eddie just needs to find a woman of easy virtue to get him through a rough spell. Lee is magNIFicent here, and >gosh< is he a topnotch narrator, voice actor, or what?! I always know I’m in for a real listening treat/performance when I see that John Lee shall be at the helm… of whatEVER he takes on.
Come for the schmooze and danger, stay for the humor and the clever solutions to some pretty messed up problems that are always cropping up. And just enjoy every. single. sentence that’s well-written and is so wonderfully performed.
And oh yeh: The Epilogue?
To DIE for!!! Who said Meticulous Research and Boring were the same thing? Not on your life; do enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!
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