Book review: Provisionally Yours by Antanas Sileika
For many in Europe, November 11, 1918 did not mark the end of a war but in fact the beginning of one. The collapse of the Russian, German and Austrian empires threw middle and eastern Europe into chaos and small, newly independent states emerged in the wake of the Treaty of Versailles. Fighting was often fierce as old scores were settled and the remnants of the old empires struggled for survival.
Lithuania, was one of these states and it is the setting of Provisionally Yours by Antanas Sileika, who is a part-time resident of Wasaga Beach.
The novel tells the story of Justas Adamonis, a former Czarist intelligence officer who served in the Great War and fought with the White Russians against the Soviets.
He arrives back in Lithuania in 1921 and is quickly recruited as head of counterintelligence by the newly formed government of a country that is in an extremely precarious position. As summed up by his recruiter, “It’s a fragile place Mr. Adamonis. The Reds nearly overran us and the German FreiKorps almost did the same thing. The Poles outnumber us at ten to one and we’re no match for them if they decide to invade. Instability would be to the advantage of more than one great power.”
Adamonis quickly finds himself in a web of intrigue. There are foreign spies about, corruption in the newly formed government and active communist cells trying to foment revolution. As one character says, “Listen this place is complicated. The city is full of foreign agents and we no sooner expose one communist cell than another begins to operate. Then there is the matter of corruption. To say nothing of internal differences so sharp that I swear some of our politicians would sell us to a foreign power rather than see their opponents win.”
This is all more than enough to keep Adamonis busy and the reader engaged.
According to Sileika, in an online interview, Adamonis is based on the real-life character Josef Budrys who was the chief of Lithuania’s counterintelligence service between 1921 and 1923. Sileika calls Budrys a Lithuanian James Bond and the novel is in the best tradition of spy fiction. In a nod to Bond, Sileika has named Adamonis’ assistant Miss Pinigelis, which he says is an approximate Lithuanian translation of the name “Miss Moneypenny.”
In writing about Provisionally Yours, Sileika says that he “sat down to write a light novel set in a little known place, something that I hoped to be an entertainment in the manner of Graham Greene”. He has succeeded.
The novel is populated with memorable and sometimes extremely eccentric characters. It also brings to life a time and place that many readers will not be familiar with. It was a period when new beginnings were hoped for as old empires crumbled. At the same time it was fraught with peril as newly formed countries sought to protect their fragile independence.
Sileika does a good job in conveying all this and has managed to wrap it up in an engaging novel of espionage.
Basil Guinane is a recently retired associate dean of the School of Media Studies at Humber college, a former librarian and an avid reader.
