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Firm 3 stars. Marie seemed so sterile and emotionally distant. She was smart but in her head a lot. Always overthinking and trying to be one step ahead of someone. AND FAILING!
I also wanted deeper introspection on how Marie seemed to be aware of her blackness and being Black in America but didn't seem to struggle with how government agencies seek to dismantle and sabotage Black civil rights movements. What made the difference for her? She didn't seem to hold a sense of guilt or struggle with these things in her upbringing, but she was (seemingly) immediately drawn to Sankara's ideals.
Marie's jealousy and love for her sister were the most compelling part to me; Helene had her own issues. The theme of darkness and negativity within both of the girls and how it manifested had my interest but didn't get as much focus.
But the whole draw to Thomas Sankara never hit. I can buy a honeypot gone wrong, but she was so beyond obvious from day one. No sense of finesse or sensuality. I wanted to feel Marie fall for him and his ideals, but it was only told to me. I don't believe a lady this about her business is falling that quickly and easily.
I think this story excelled with the spy bits and the behind-the-scenes espionage and political sabotage, but it was weaker on the emotionally charged bits. ( )
The protagonist in this espionage novel is a black American female intelligence officer, Marie Mitchell. The story takes place during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush late Cold War/early Mid-East terrorism years as they were playing out in Africa. As a disenchanted FBI agent, she is rather easily recruited/manipulated by a CIA operative to take part in what she is led to believe is plan to discredit the revolutionary, Communist president of Burkina Faso. But as in most spy novels, very little is as it seems. At times the narrative became bogged down by detailed political context -- although necessary because of the relative dearth of stories about the political upheavals in Africa as the West and Russia and the Middle East fought to control the governments there over the last four decades. The novel is framed as a journal for the benefit of Marie's young twin sons, and goes back and forth in time, from her own childhood in Queens to the time she is writing the journal in Martinique at her mother's farm and all of the event in between. The plot is rich and complicated, the moral and political issues are meaty, and the writing fresh and well-crafted. A solid effort for this debut novelist. I would give it 4-1/2 stars. ( )
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Son, after I'm gone I want you to keep up the good fight. I never told you, but our life is a war and I have been a traitor all my born days, a spy in the enemy's country ever since I give up my gun back in the Reconstruction. Live with your head in the lion's mouth. I want you to overcome 'em with yeses, undermine 'em with grins, agree 'em to death and destruction, let 'em swoller you till they vomit or bust wide open. --Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man
Dedicatòria
Primeres paraules
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I unlocked the safe beneath my desk, grabbed my old service automatic, and crept toward my bedroom doorway, stealthy until I was brought to grief by a Lego Duplo that stung the sole of my foot.
Citacions
Darreres paraules
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Fiction.
African American Fiction.
Thriller.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:“American Spy updates the espionage thriller with blazing originality.”—Entertainment Weekly “There has never been anything like it.”—Marlon James, GQ “So much fun . . . Like the best of John le Carré, it’s extremely tough to put down.”—NPR NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY CHICAGO TRIBUNE AND ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Time • NPR • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • BuzzFeed • Vulture • Real Simple • Good Housekeeping • The New York Public Library What if your sense of duty required you to betray the man you love? It’s 1986, the heart of the Cold War, and Marie Mitchell is an intelligence officer with the FBI. She’s brilliant, but she’s also a young black woman working in an old boys’ club. Her career has stalled out, she’s overlooked for every high-profile squad, and her days are filled with monotonous paperwork. So when she’s given the opportunity to join a shadowy task force aimed at undermining Thomas Sankara, the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkina Faso whose Communist ideology has made him a target for American intervention, she says yes. Yes, even though she secretly admires the work Sankara is doing for his country. Yes, even though she is still grieving the mysterious death of her sister, whose example led Marie to this career path in the first place. Yes, even though a furious part of her suspects she’s being offered the job because of her appearance and not her talent. In the year that follows, Marie will observe Sankara, seduce him, and ultimately have a hand in the coup that will bring him down. But doing so will change everything she believes about what it means to be a spy, a lover, a sister, and a good American. Inspired by true events—Thomas Sankara is known as “Africa’s Che Guevara”—American Spy knits together a gripping spy thriller, a heartbreaking family drama, and a passionate romance. This is a face of the Cold War you’ve never seen before, and it introduces a powerful new literary voice. NOMINATED FOR THE NAACP IMAGE AWARD • Shortlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “Spy fiction plus allegory, and a splash of pan-Africanism. What could go wrong? As it happens, very little. Clever, bracing, darkly funny, and really, really good.”—Ta-Nehisi Coates “Inspired by real events, this espionage thriller ticks all the right boxes, delivering a sexually charged interrogation of both politics and race.”—Esquire “Echoing the stoic cynicism of Hurston and Ellison, and the verve of Conan Doyle, American Spy lays our complicities—political, racial, and sexual—bare. Packed with unforgettable characters, it’s a stunning book, timely as it is timeless.”—Paul Beatty, Man Booker Prizewinning author of The Sellout.
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Google Books — S'està carregant…
(3.55)
3
I also wanted deeper introspection on how Marie seemed to be aware of her blackness and being Black in America but didn't seem to struggle with how government agencies seek to dismantle and sabotage Black civil rights movements. What made the difference for her? She didn't seem to hold a sense of guilt or struggle with these things in her upbringing, but she was (seemingly) immediately drawn to Sankara's ideals.
Marie's jealousy and love for her sister were the most compelling part to me; Helene had her own issues. The theme of darkness and negativity within both of the girls and how it manifested had my interest but didn't get as much focus.
But the whole draw to Thomas Sankara never hit. I can buy a honeypot gone wrong, but she was so beyond obvious from day one. No sense of finesse or sensuality. I wanted to feel Marie fall for him and his ideals, but it was only told to me. I don't believe a lady this about her business is falling that quickly and easily.
I think this story excelled with the spy bits and the behind-the-scenes espionage and political sabotage, but it was weaker on the emotionally charged bits. (