MargaretBolingMullin

11/2010 Mike and I went to see the movie Fair Game during the Thanksgiving weekend. I was so fascinated with the story that I wanted to at least look through Plame's and Wilson's books. Sometimes I get 'caught' by memoir, especially political memoir, and sometimes I don't find it particularly interesting.

12/3/2010 I'm intrigued with the structure of the book. About 3/4 is the memoir by Plame; however, many chapters have had portions redacted by the CIA. To compensate, Simon & Schuster hired a journalist to write a parallel book that provides context and details that are necessarily lacking in Plame's section. The journalist's work comprises about 1/4 of the full volume. I've been flipping back and forth and just finished both chapter 3s.

1/12/2011 ** Well, it took a while, but I finished it. I found the book interesting & disturbing, but not so exciting that I had to finish it before I started something new. I found that I read this book interspersed with fiction reading. RE interesting: how a covert agent is trained, the ways in which the person seems to essentially work two jobs -the cover job and the CIA job. RE disturbing: how some of our politicians can get so wrapped up in their own agendas and personal areas of influence that they forget the impact of their actions on the lives of the 'behind the scenes' government employees who spend their entire career working for the American people.

If you like political memoir, you may want to dip into this one.