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3.27 AVERAGE
3.27 AVERAGE
A Map of Betrayal, the story of Gary Shang, a Chinese spy who served as a translator for the CIA, is a slow paced account of Gary’s activities from 1949 to 1980 and his daughter’s search to discover who her father really was. Accounts of the progress of relations between China and Russia were interesting but the book moved at an uneven pace frequently getting bogged down in details such as food or clothing which didn’t serve to add to the focus of the story-the conflict Gary felt between his loyalties to his homeland and the affection he had come to feel for his adopted home of America.
3.5 stars
Lilian Shang, the American daughter of the highest-placed Chinese spy ever captured by the FBI decides to search for her father's first wife's family in China. Her late father's long-time mistress provides key knowledge--and his diaries--to her.
In her search, she finds and learns more than she expected, as do the relatives she finds.
A good read, I kept having to remind myself that this is fiction. However, I doubt I will remember this book in a year.
Lilian Shang, the American daughter of the highest-placed Chinese spy ever captured by the FBI decides to search for her father's first wife's family in China. Her late father's long-time mistress provides key knowledge--and his diaries--to her.
In her search, she finds and learns more than she expected, as do the relatives she finds.
A good read, I kept having to remind myself that this is fiction. However, I doubt I will remember this book in a year.
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Not much conflict and the book just kind of ends instead of reaching any kind of conflict, but the story is pretty compelling, perhaps because it is about a character and situation that I don't see very often.
This is a very realistic portrayal of a spy's life, a spy for communist China whose activity was actually helpful in bringing the two countries closer together. The title is very apt--it is about a map of betrayal--but who betrayed who? The story is narrated by the spy's daughter and it alternates between chapters about the spy and chapters about the daughter. This device didn't always work well--especially when the daughter describes her father's sex life--but it did keep my interest. The writing style is very clearly and simply written, more like nonfiction than fiction.
Story about a Chinese mole in the CIA from 1949+. Told by his American-born daughter. "Gary Lewis"'s life is then paralleled by that of Ben, his Chinese grandson who learns from his father's betrayal by the Chinese government and decides to stop being a spy and go into hiding with his pregnant fiancee. Gave it a three because it reviewed American-Russian-Chinese relationships through the years.
A little slow to start, but as you go on, it gets more and more satisfying and captivating.
adventurous
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I didn’t connect with this story all that well and could never fully suspend disbelief. There was something about the characters that didn’t seem real to me for whatever reason. I read war trash and enjoyed it, which is why I decided to read this. I got through it but never enjoyed it.
After the death of her mother, Lillian Shang gets in touch with her father’s mistress, and receives an unexpected gift: six volumes of his diary. “I hadn’t known he kept a journal, and I had assumed that the FBI seized all the papers left by him, Gary Shang, the biggest Chinese spy ever caught in North America.” The diary starts Lillian on a journey to discover parts of her late father’s life that she’d never known. She discovers that her father had, in 1949, on orders from his communist party boss, left behind his new wife in order to keep his job as a translator with the Americans who were departing China for Okinawa. Her father was a bigamist. Lillian discovers she has a half-sister living in China. From Okinawa Shang’s map of betrayal led him first to California and ultimately Langley, Virginia, where he received a medal from the CIA in 1972 to honor his hard work and devotion.
The novel alternates viewpoints between Lillian’s first person present day discoveries in the United States, Canada, and China with a third person narration of Gary’s life from 1949 to 1980. Jin has taken the facts of real life double agent Larry Chin, and fashioned a gradually unfolding tale of a man with a double life. It’s similar to John Le Carré use of actual double agent, Kim Philby, to fashion his 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Both Le Carré’s and Jin’s spies are sleeper agents enlisted as young men to gradually work their way into the intelligence services of the target country. Le Carré’s agent is a “mole,” working his way underground, while Jin’s is a “nail,” assigned to stay at his post for life. This is indicative of the vastly different tone of the two novels. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a literary thriller, filled with suspense as British Intelligence works feverishly to uncover and arrest the mole. A Map of Betrayal is a literary character study of a man in involuntary exile, and the consequences for his children on both sides of the Pacific. But like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, it’s also about loves and betrayals, on national and on the most intimate and personal levels.
Lin’s narration of the audio version is excellent.
The novel alternates viewpoints between Lillian’s first person present day discoveries in the United States, Canada, and China with a third person narration of Gary’s life from 1949 to 1980. Jin has taken the facts of real life double agent Larry Chin, and fashioned a gradually unfolding tale of a man with a double life. It’s similar to John Le Carré use of actual double agent, Kim Philby, to fashion his 1974 novel Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Both Le Carré’s and Jin’s spies are sleeper agents enlisted as young men to gradually work their way into the intelligence services of the target country. Le Carré’s agent is a “mole,” working his way underground, while Jin’s is a “nail,” assigned to stay at his post for life. This is indicative of the vastly different tone of the two novels. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a literary thriller, filled with suspense as British Intelligence works feverishly to uncover and arrest the mole. A Map of Betrayal is a literary character study of a man in involuntary exile, and the consequences for his children on both sides of the Pacific. But like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, it’s also about loves and betrayals, on national and on the most intimate and personal levels.
Lin’s narration of the audio version is excellent.
Even though this book was 280 pages it felt as if I was reading an unfinished sketch of a book. I wanted Jin to give me more detail and make me care more about his characters. It was as if he was giving us the plot with very little understanding of what made it's main characters - Gary Shang and his daughter Lillian - tick.