The spy's son
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Average rating4
By day, he taught spycraft at the CIA's clandestine training center, The Farm. By night, he was a minivan-driving single father racing home to have dinner with his kids. But for more than two years, Jim Nicholson met covertly with agents of Russia's foreign intelligence service and turned over troves of classified documents. In 1997 Nicholson became the highest ranking CIA officer ever convicted of espionage. But while behind the bars of a federal prison, he groomed the one person he trusted most to serve as his stand-in: his youngest son, Nathan.
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This is a fascinating account of Jim Nicholson's espionage, triple life, and disturbing justifications. The book does a great job outlining indicators displayed by those actively engaging in such activities. The specifics of Nicholson's situation are glaring.
Empathy for Nathan, and the situation his father placed him in, is nearly unavoidable. Candid testimony given by Nathan himself lights upon the path of a loving, confused son, being handled by a manipulative spy. A spy, so long on the job, he may have been unable to deviate from psychologically comfortable manipulation of those around him. Jim's marital infidelity, his dishonest use of money, and other evidences show an early developed, even enjoyed, deceptive narcissism.
Presented by the author, Jim stands to be released from prison in 2024. I can't wait to see if the seventy year old spy will flee to Russia, or remain in the USA.
This was a well crafted, well presented, and convincingly researched narrative of one man's path from loyalist to miscreant.
