{"product_id":"9780312275976","title":"Our Man in Vienna: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe wit and charm that marked Our Man in Belize enlivens Richard Timothy Conroy's new \"diplomatic memoir,\" in a posting that couldn't have a more different location.  But the wheels of lower-level diplomacy, it turns out, turn at the same rate whatever the setting.  Plucked from the cost of Central America and put down in post-World-War II Vienna, land of Der Rosencavalier and whipped cream cakes, Conroy still was \"not mentioned in dispatches\" (or at least, not complimentary ones) but even a lowly vice-consul could do some good in people's lives.  \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTake, for example, his effort to help a woman flee Vienna after she reported that someone was sneaking into her room and slicing off a bit of her foot each night.  Or the unfortunate Austrian whose visa application had been rejected three previous times, with no explanation.  Conroy discovered that there was a picture of the man in a Red Army sergeant's uniform.  Turned out the man had conned a gullible Red Army soldier to lend him the uniform for a snapshot, and an equally gullible group of Russian border guards that he was an undercover Red agent posing as (what he really was) an export-import businessman. Nobody before Conroy had bothered to ask for an explanation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn between similar tales of deep diplomatic deed and misdeed, the author gives his readers an imitable take on the Vienna of those days.  Want to buy a second-hand piano?  Some inexpensive paintings?  How about -- above all -- that famous Viennese food and beer?  You could have found it there with Conroy as your guide; failing that, his account of those days is just as rewarding and not nearly as fattening.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"St. Martin's Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120851501296,"sku":"9780312275976","price":7.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780312275976_p0.jpg?v=1769888507","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780312275976","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}