American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

Ein Geräusch. Der Schatten eines Mannes. Ein Schuss. Als Marie Mitchell eines Nachts in ihrem Haus von einem bewaffneten Mann angegriffen wird und ihm nur knapp entkommt, weiß sie, dass ihre Vergangenheit als amerikanische Spionin sie eingeholt hat. Und dass sie in den USA nicht länger sicher ist. 1986: Der Kalte Krieg ist noch nicht vorbei. Marie Mitchell arbeitet als Geheimagentin beim FBI. Sie ist außerordentlich gut in ihrem Job, und sie ist die einzige schwarze Frau in einem Club weißer Männer. Statt endlich ins Feld geschickt zu werden, muss sie sich Tag für Tag mit Papierkram herumschlagen. Dann wird ihr plötzlich doch die Teilnahme an einer Geheimoperation angeboten. Sie soll Thomas Sankara ausspionieren, den charismatischen sozialistischen Präsidenten von Burkina Faso. Was Marie nicht ahnt: Dieser Einsatz wird nicht nur alles ändern, was sie über Spione, die Liebe und ihr Land zu wissen glaubte, er wird sie auch direkt ins Fadenkreuz des Geheimdienstes führen. Lauren Wilkinson erzählt den Spionageroman neu: mutig, zeitgemäß und hochspannend. Dieses Gesicht des Kalten Krieges kennen Sie noch nicht. »Wie das Beste von John le Carré.« NPR

Mer underholdende enn god. Tidshistorisk interessant med Thomas Sankara og Burkina Faso som småfrekt tema. Som thriller uforløst og lite intens, som fortelling fascinerende og samtidig veldig konstruert. Som mange amerikanske bestselgere litt skrivekursaktig i konstruksjonen. Anbefalt av Obamas bokklubb, akkurat det er mest en kuriositet.

American Spy is written as a letter to the narrator's (Marie) twin sons as she prepares to go after the CIA officer who ordered a hit on her. Marie is a black woman who grew up in Queens in the 1970's and worked for the FBI in the ‘80's. The main action of the book takes place in the mid-‘80's, Cold War times, when Marie is recruited to “get close to” Thomas Sankara, then president of Burkina Faso, and get information from him. There are several layers of deception to this recruitment which peel away as the story progresses and plans go off the rails.

As plans go off the rails, you start to wonder if it's happening because the people in the story are actually really bad spies, or if Lauren Wilkinson doesn't know enough about the work of spying to write a believable spy novel. Also, the character Marie has a great deal of confidence in her abilities, which is not always justified in her actions. If it's part of the story that she's actually not a very good spy even though she thinks she is, that's one thing. If it's just a poorly imagined spy story, that's another.

What this novel does well is show the parallels between the life of a spy and the life of a black woman in a white world. Marie is always assessing peoples' truthfulness, intentions toward her, their motivations, and she instinctively understands the need to guard her real identity, her own truthfulness, level of intelligence, and motivations. These things come easily to her, it seems, because she has done them all her life. Her father, a Vietnam veteran, became a policeman after the war, much to their community's puzzlement, and Marie's motivation for joining the FBI is also questioned. The complexity of Marie and her father's (and sister Helene's) loyalty to a country and authority structure that does not seem loyal to them is another major theme in this book, and is more compelling than the not-totally-convincing spy novel that is the vehicle.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this novel.