Book Report: American Spy

19. Lauren Wilkinson, American Spy (2020) (7/19/2020)

Marie Mitchell awakes one night in 1992 and realizes there is an intruder in the house. Her twin four-year-old sons and dog Poochini are asleep in a neighboring bedroom. She quickly arms herself and dispatches the man—who is a stranger to her. But she knows why he is there. She then flees with her family to Martinique and the safety of her mother's farm. Whereupon she sits down to write a (long) letter to her boys, detailing her own history, and especially the story of an incident she was involved in five years before. As an operative for the CIA.

It is her letter that we are reading in this book. Marie explains that she had been an FBI agent at the New York field office, in part as a promise to her beloved sister Helene, now dead. But she was foundering: as a young Black woman, she kept encountering not just roadblocks, but brick walls that stood in the way of career advancement. So when an old friend of Helene's, CIA operative Daniel Slater, comes obliquely into the picture, and Marie is convinced to "get close to" the charismatic revolutionary president of Burkino Faso, who is giving a speech at the UN, her life changes. Dramatically and forever.

It is a nicely told spy story, full of about-turns and interesting characters. But what is most impressive, to my mind, is the way Wilkinson weaves true events into this fictitious account. Because that Burkinès president, Thomas Sankara—"Africa's Che Guevara"—actually existed, as did his rival. And (some of) the dramatic events that end Marie's stay in that West African country actually did happen.

Moreover, Wilkinson's descriptions of the places Marie spends time—Harlem, Ouagadougou, Martinique—are really nicely grounded, such that I could feel them organically. I always appreciate a solid attention to place.

The story, writ large, is about choices we make; about loyalty and trust, truth and lies; about ambition and meaning; about love and protection. I didn't flag any passages, but here's one from the end of part 2. She's recalling an incident just before she graduated from the FBI academy, when she'd been involved in a sparring contest and gotten badly hit: black-eye, bruised-face badly. But as the top academic scorer, she was slated to give a speech at the commencement. Her father, a lifelong police officer in NYC, is there for the ceremony.

The point of the story—the thing that reminds me of the way I felt after [CIA recruiter] Ross laid out his plans to use me [in Burkina Faso], and how I reconciled my choice to let him—was a memory I have of my father from that day. He'd seen my face earlier, before I'd gone up onstage, and told me if I didn't want to speak I didn't have to. He said, "You don't owe them anything. You give them what you want to give them. But it's easier if they think you're one of them. It's easier to work from the inside. That's what I try to do. I've been a spy in this country for as long as I can remember."
 I didn't know what side I was on. While I knew I couldn't trust Ross, I didn't know if it would benefit me to let Thomas in on their plans. But I'd get what I wanted. My meeting with Slater [with whom she wants to talk about Helene]. And I knew too that I'd only give them what I wanted to give, once I figured it out.
 I thought of Pop sitting toward the front of the amphitheater at the end of the aisle, his old Minolta up to his face. I'd decided to present my speech even though he said it wouldn't disappoint him if I didn't. We were twin spies. That thought tamped down my embarrassment. I smiled at him, cleared my throat, and began to speak.

Oh, and I liked this too—which is the last paragraph of the book, but I don't think it gives anything away. It's just how she ends the letter to her sons:

I love you. I hope you grow into men who are the best parts of your father and me. I hope that if you're called to resist injustice you'll have the courage to do so. I hope you'll love fiercely and freely. In those ways I hope you'll be good Americans.

As the book plays out, Marie certainly shows that more than one can engage in the spying game. The man in her house? She's going to make sure that doesn't happen again. Or she'll die trying.

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