 Popsugar Reading Challenge category: A book including a married couple who don't live together.
Wide Is the Gate, by Upton Sinclair. This is the fourth book in Upton Sinclair's Lanny Budd spy series. The earlier books show why Lanny became a socialist and anti-fascist. This one shows how he developed the skills that will turn him into a a presidential agent in the next book. It's 1936, and the Spanish Civil War is raging around him. Lanny pulls off two daring rescues, using his wit, connections, money, and powers of persuasion. Spoilers about the marriage situation: it was clear by the end of the previous book, Dragon's Teeth, that Lanny's marriage to Irma was doomed. Irma is an heiress who fell for Lanny because he was unimpressed by her wealth. Lanny told her he was a socialist, but 19-year-old Irma had no idea what that meant. Lanny assumed, incorrectly, that he could mold her to share his views. Irma has legitimate reasons for the divorce: Lanny repeatedly lies to her, puts himself in danger, and inadvertently endangers Irma when he brings her to Germany and later needs her help to rescue his friend Trudi, a member of the German underground. But Irma comes across as shallow and materialistic, with a side of, "I'm not anti-Semitic, but...." The second spouses for both characters were also introduced in the previous book. Irma finds the life she wants with a conservative British lord. Lanny marries Trudi, even though they will have to keep it secret and live apart to continue their undercover work. Lanny's method of wooing with Trudi, as with previous loves, is oddly cerebral. Throughout this series, Lanny dabbles in spiritualism. The seances always leave him only partially convinced, as the dead people who want to talk to him never seem to be the ones he wants to hear from, or the ones who could give him useful information. But there's also an incident when the spirit who appears is someone who just died that day, and neither Lanny nor the medium had any way to know about the death. Nazis and fascists are strangely credulous with Lanny. Goring is willing to believe Lanny has turned apolitical, and even enlists him as an informant - even though Lanny was previously tortured in a Nazi prison while unsuccessfully trying to save Freddi Robin. Freddi, a Jew, was a lifelong friend of Lanny's, and a family member by marriage. Somehow, Goring and other Nazis assume Lanny is willing to overlook this. The explanation offered is Nazi arrogance: they're so sure of their own superiority, they can't imagine Lanny doesn't share this view. That explanation seems insufficient, but as with the spiritualism, I find it's best to suspend disbelief and go with the story.
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