Page "Tom Reiss" Paragraph 5

Reiss, himself Jewish, was drawn to write The Orientalist, partially based on his own family's experiences in Europe during the 1920s and 1930s in Europe.

To research the book he traveled to 10 countries, from Baku to Berlin to Hollywood.

He spent five years tracking down secret police records, love letters, diaries, and the deathbed notebooks.

Beginning with a yearlong investigation for The New Yorker, Reiss ’ s quest for the truth buffets him from one weird character to the next: from the last heir of the Ottoman throne to a highly educated baroness living in an Austrian castle who was translating the lyrics of a rock opera from German to French, to an aging starlet in a Hollywood bungalow full of cats and turtles.

( Reiss published further details about the bizarre Freudian Nazi, George Sylvester Viereck, in a 2005 " New Yorker " profile of his son, Peter Viereck, who had a rivalry with William F. Buckley over the future of American conservatism.