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1.39k reviews for:
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
Ben Macintyre
4.47 AVERAGE
1.39k reviews for:
The Spy and the Traitor: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War
Ben Macintyre
4.47 AVERAGE
My favorite book of 2020 (so far). It's a nonfiction book, yet the stories areas spectacular (or even more so) than the Le Carré novels that I love so much.
Well written fascinating story. I learned so much about the Cold war and spying!!
adventurous
emotional
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Very good from beginning to end. Macintyre tells the Gordievsky story in a measured pace and the narrative unfolds nicely. We learn of his early career along with the people that influenced his political beliefs. The first half of the book builds the foundation of the man at its center while the second half provides the thrilling intrigue.
Anyone unfamiliar with Gordievsky, as I was, should avoid the pictures and captions until the end (in the kindle version they're at the end of the book) and try not to read too much into the chapter titles. Part of the reading experience is trying to determine if Gordievsky was apprehended. One interesting aspect that isn't a spoiler: many KGB agents are described as lazy, incompetent and indifferent paper pushers. I suppose that's not much of a revelation when describing huge government bureaucracies but I can't recall ever reading about KGB agents as anything less than the best of the best.
As much as I liked the book and would recommend it to almost anyone it didn't cause me to think about it in my free time. I preferred The Billion Dollar Spy (by David E. Hoffman), The Good Spy (by Kai Bird) and Rise and Kill First (by Ronen Bergman); it may be that I liked those books more because I read them earlier and might have reached a spy saturation point.
Anyone unfamiliar with Gordievsky, as I was, should avoid the pictures and captions until the end (in the kindle version they're at the end of the book) and try not to read too much into the chapter titles. Part of the reading experience is trying to determine if Gordievsky was apprehended. One interesting aspect that isn't a spoiler: many KGB agents are described as lazy, incompetent and indifferent paper pushers. I suppose that's not much of a revelation when describing huge government bureaucracies but I can't recall ever reading about KGB agents as anything less than the best of the best.
As much as I liked the book and would recommend it to almost anyone it didn't cause me to think about it in my free time. I preferred The Billion Dollar Spy (by David E. Hoffman), The Good Spy (by Kai Bird) and Rise and Kill First (by Ronen Bergman); it may be that I liked those books more because I read them earlier and might have reached a spy saturation point.
Ben Macintyre has a knack for making a somewhat interesting spy story, very interesting just by the way he organizes and presents the narrative. He does this very well with the story of Oleg Gordievsky, the first (and only, so far as I know) Soviet spy to be whisked out of Russia by foreign spy services (in this case MI-6). Some takeaways from the book:
1. We tend to think that these governmental spy organizations are infallible, but as we discover in this book, all of the spy services make mistakes, some of them terrible blunders. One guy in Britain wants to spy so bad for the USSR that he attempts to contact them three times! and the KGB head of station in London is so paranoid that he thinks the whole think is an attempt to entrap him and never takes advantage of the offer. (MI-6 discovers him thanks to Oleg Gordievsky). The CIA cannot stand that MI-6 has a high level spy in the KGB so that they don't know about, so they put someone on the case and eventually figure out it is Gordievsky. Aldrich Ames happens to be the head of counter-espionage against the USSR for the CIA, and needs a lot of cash (to support his over-spending wife) and promptly reveals Gordievsky's name to the KGB (way to go, CIA). The KGB totally bungles the investigation into Oleg Gordievsky, which gives him time to escape Russia, thanks to the help of MI-6. It's a fascinating read.
2. One shortcoming of the book is that, even though Aldrich Ames is the one who betrayed Oleg Gordievsky, we never find out about how he was uncovered, the author just seems to drop him all of the sudden.
Good book. Fascinating story.
1. We tend to think that these governmental spy organizations are infallible, but as we discover in this book, all of the spy services make mistakes, some of them terrible blunders. One guy in Britain wants to spy so bad for the USSR that he attempts to contact them three times! and the KGB head of station in London is so paranoid that he thinks the whole think is an attempt to entrap him and never takes advantage of the offer. (MI-6 discovers him thanks to Oleg Gordievsky). The CIA cannot stand that MI-6 has a high level spy in the KGB so that they don't know about, so they put someone on the case and eventually figure out it is Gordievsky. Aldrich Ames happens to be the head of counter-espionage against the USSR for the CIA, and needs a lot of cash (to support his over-spending wife) and promptly reveals Gordievsky's name to the KGB (way to go, CIA). The KGB totally bungles the investigation into Oleg Gordievsky, which gives him time to escape Russia, thanks to the help of MI-6. It's a fascinating read.
2. One shortcoming of the book is that, even though Aldrich Ames is the one who betrayed Oleg Gordievsky, we never find out about how he was uncovered, the author just seems to drop him all of the sudden.
Good book. Fascinating story.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Very interesting read about espionage in the Cold War. A gripping read.
Fascinating revelations of what real life spying was like for a real double agent, but even more interesting for its revelations of what was going on behind closed doors in the Soviet Union during the Cold War, especially re: the threat of nuclear war in the 80's. Well written!
Vastly overrated. Just interesting, not a page turner (particularly in the first half). Obviously unbalanced. I'm sure that the Soviets were paranoid, I'm not convinced that the Brits and Americans were as reasonable as illustrated in this book during the cold war. The Russian traitor betrayed his country for ideology and freedom while the American for the money. Also his breath was stinking! Come oooon... 2.5 stars.
informative
One of my faves! At times my heart was racing, it was that exciting. I am truly always amazed by the incredible stories of real life. Reads better than many fictional works.