Signed, Mata Hari: Yannick Murphy

Though she has often been vilified as one of the world's most notorious female spies, Mata Hari's first, and what should have been the lasting, claim to fame was her dancing. Her act was revolutionary and the life story that she wove around it even more so. It was only when she garnered the attention and favors, and the beds, of the most powerful men in Europe that suspicions were aroused against her. In Signed, Mata Hari, Yannick Murphy leads the reader on a disjointed and lovely narrative through the strange life of the Dutch woman who would become so infamous.

Written mainly from Mata Hari's own point-of-view, the novel weaves sinuously back and forth through time, from her Paris prison cell to defining moments of her former life. As she struggles to prove that she is not a spy, her tired brain recalls the events that brought her to this moment, from her mother's death in the kitchen, to her abusive marriage in Java and her rise as a premier entertainer in Paris. Throughout the narrative her voice is gentle, laying the threads of her story slowly, leaving it for the listener to decide as they will.

The only real issue I had with this book is the choppiness. It does tend to move back and forth, rather like a Japanese movie, with no sense of time. The reader is left floundering in spots, trying to catch up with where we've ended up and how we got there. The prose itself is beautiful though. The author has rendered her voice in a lovely way and left the reader with a strong core of doubt as to whether Mata Hari was really a spy or just a victim of very bad circumstance.
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Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (November 14, 2007)
ISBN-10: 031611264X
ISBN-13: 978-0316112642
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