90. Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish by Dorothy Gilman (Mystery, Spy Thriller) 181 p.
Mrs. Pollifax flies to Morocco to hand over a set of photographs to fellow agent Max Janko. Her boss, Carstairs, is worried that Janko’s arrogant, abrasive personality will hinder his mission, and sends Mrs. Pollifax along to soothe the ruffled feathers of the people he comes into contact with. Janko is much ruder that even she expected…and then he turns out he isn’t exactly who he claims.
This book is slightly different from the other Mrs. Pollifax books. In the others I’ve read, she’s been relatively uncritical of American foreign policy—not surprising in a woman who would volunteer to work for the CIA during the Cold War. This book, however, was published in 1990, and Mrs. Pollifax, far from supporting the occupation of Western Sahara, is very much on the side of the Polisarios.
In light of the current situation, though, this statement (made by one of the male characters) is rather sad:
It’s certainly intelligent in this particular case because now that Morocco and Algeria have established connections again, the United Nations just may be able to hold the plebiscite after all, the vote promised Western Sahara years ago…. It’s clearly understood—admitted publicly, too—that neither side can win, and that eventually there’ll have to be negotiations and that the Saharans will probably be given back at least some of their country.
Of course, none of that happened—the cease-fire has continued uninterrupted since 1989, but the UN never did get to hold that plebiscite, nor has Morocco withdrawn its claims to (or its people from) Western Sahara.
Books read: 90/100 (90%)
Pages read: 26,735/30,000 (89%)
