Life Undercover

My first thought was, I'm surprised Fox was allowed/willing/able to share so much about her missions and the training she underwent as part of the CIA. I read an article partway through about how she didn't wait for permission from the agency to send this book to her publisher, but that they (allegedly) had a copy for over a year and had only requested superficial changes, and that surprised me a lot. I think that I expected that, with a book as fascinating as Life Undercover is, more would need to be redacted, that there would be more cover-up (particularly in those sections where Fox is critical of the CIA, in how they handle common names in the Middle East, in how they willfully choose to act first and apologize never, and how they look down on things that may take time even if it will produce more effective results in the long run). Maybe I just don't have a lot of faith in the Systems That Be, so it was kind of refreshing that Fox was allowed to be proud of the work she was doing while also admitting that it was not perfect by any means.

This is not a very action-oriented spy story, but it really delves into the psyche of those who participate, as active agents and those on the periphery (families, spouses, etc.). I loved seeing why and how someone like Fox would be attracted to and recruited into this work, what it takes as far as training, and the toll on one's personal life and emotional health. I'm glad she didn't shy away from describing Dean's PTSD after leaving Afghanistan, and I can only hope the CIA has systems in place to help their employees deal with that trauma. I was also glad to see that there is a time and place in which the best option is to walk away - I think I expected that once you're in, you're in for life ... even if that life doesn't work for you anymore.

It was very well-written, and I think I just convinced myself to bump this up to a 4.5.