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Friday October 26, 2007

The spy whonoodged me

Novelist brings Jewish characters into espionage genre

by dan pine
staff writer

He’s a successful author of spy thrillers now, but not so long ago, Barry Eisler toiled in the business world as an attorney. Maybe that’s why he says he sometimes thinks in terms of branding.

Including the Jewish brand.

“What’s the Jewish brand?” he asks rhetorically. “Initially it wouldn’t have to do with martial arts or kicking ass. But with the prevalence of [Israeli martial art form] Krav Maga, the prominence of Israeli weapons like the Uzi and with Israel’s extraordinary expertise in counterinsurgency and counterterrorism, that brand is changing.”

As a Tokyo-trained black belt in judo and a former CIA employee, Eisler doesn’t fit any conventional Jewish brand either. This former bar mitzvah boy from New Jersey took a few twists and turns in life not unlike his fictional alter ego, John Rain.

Eisler’s latest novel, “Requiem for an Assassin,” has professional killer Rain trying to ease out of the business, and settle down with his Israeli girlfriend, Delilah, a Mossad agent. But when bad guys kidnap his best friend, Dox, well, let’s just say John Rain gets mad and gets even.

For Eisler fans, Delilah is a favorite character, having appeared in four John Rain novels. The author says the Mossad’s reputation for methodical efficiency is well deserved. “It’s in part a function of their size and focus,” Eisler says. “The CIA has to focus on a lot of targets — the collection effort is enormous and the organization is enormous. Mossad is concerned about existential threats to Israel. They are much smaller and not as bureaucratic.”

John Rain is of Japanese-American heritage. Eisler is straight-up Jewish American, but he has a longtime affinity for Japanese culture. As a young man, he lived in Japan to master the language and the native martial art of judo.

“It was love at first sight,” he says. “One thing about living abroad, it’s a fantastic way to get perspective on your own culture. For the most part, I was treated graciously and warmly.”

For years, Eisler has lived in the South Bay. He has a young family and is active in the Jewish community there. And though he left his own spy days behind a long time ago, he understands the difference between a 007-like fantasy figure and the real thing.

“To a lot of people it would be so cool to go from 0 to 60, from breakfast cereal to lethal violence,” Eisler says. “But to get to the point, you have to pay an enormous price. You have to deal with dark forces inside that most people don’t have. That’s what interests me about these characters: You have in fiction a super badass who pays no price for it.”

Barry Eisler appears 12 p.m. Monday, Nov. 12, at the CCJCC, 2071 Tice Valley Blvd., Walnut Creek. Tickets: $20. Information: (510) 839-2900 ext. 256, or online at www.ccjcc.org.

“Requiem for an Assassin” by Barry Eisler (368 pages, Putnam, $24.95)

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