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3.8 AVERAGE
3.8 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
slow-paced
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
I have to admit that I don't really understand the love for this book. It was certainly interesting to get a firsthand account of O'Neill's important role in the Robert Hanssen case. But that was about the only thing that kept me going.
Firstly, I just didn't believe a lot of O'Neill's recollections. He made himself seem so inept that I couldn't believe the FBI would have chosen him for this case. At one point he actually says to Hanssen, “I mean, they give us access to all of these secrets, ask us to protect the nation, but pay us less than an administrative assistant at a law firm. Then they wonder why people become spies.” Really?
Secondly, O'Neill spends a lot of time on how his relationship with his wife was negatively affected by his undercover work. It could have been interesting, but they have essentially the same arugment over and over again. For whatever reason she doesn't seem to get the hint that he might be doing undercover work, despite the fact that he works for the FBI and doesn't seem to be trying very hard to come up with plausible lies.
Side note: O'Neill is the kind of enlightened modern man who refers to his wife as "very independent." And when Hanssen — whom O'Neill now knows is an evil Russian spy — looks at a picture of O'Neill's wife and says, "You’re a lucky man," O'Neill "suppresses a smile." Gross.
Thirdly, O'Neill's manly patriotism and unexamined idealism began to wear on me almost immediately. He is not really interested in nuance — for him, Hanssen is an evil spy, spies are evil (except, presumably, the ones who spy for the U.S.), and the FBI is a well-meaning organization whose worst error is not modernizing its computer system. I was not surprised to hear him present an uncritical picture of J. Edgar Hoover, whom he lauded for his filing system innovations.
Ultimately there wasn't much in Gray Day to distinguish it from a second-rate spy thriller except that most of it is, theoretically, true. Unfortunately O'Neill admits in the end that he changed a bunch of stuff in the name of poetic license — and I would not be surprised if he changed even more than he revealed. Gray Day benefits from being based in fact, but that's about the only thing going for it.
Firstly, I just didn't believe a lot of O'Neill's recollections. He made himself seem so inept that I couldn't believe the FBI would have chosen him for this case. At one point he actually says to Hanssen, “I mean, they give us access to all of these secrets, ask us to protect the nation, but pay us less than an administrative assistant at a law firm. Then they wonder why people become spies.” Really?
Secondly, O'Neill spends a lot of time on how his relationship with his wife was negatively affected by his undercover work. It could have been interesting, but they have essentially the same arugment over and over again. For whatever reason she doesn't seem to get the hint that he might be doing undercover work, despite the fact that he works for the FBI and doesn't seem to be trying very hard to come up with plausible lies.
Side note: O'Neill is the kind of enlightened modern man who refers to his wife as "very independent." And when Hanssen — whom O'Neill now knows is an evil Russian spy — looks at a picture of O'Neill's wife and says, "You’re a lucky man," O'Neill "suppresses a smile." Gross.
Thirdly, O'Neill's manly patriotism and unexamined idealism began to wear on me almost immediately. He is not really interested in nuance — for him, Hanssen is an evil spy, spies are evil (except, presumably, the ones who spy for the U.S.), and the FBI is a well-meaning organization whose worst error is not modernizing its computer system. I was not surprised to hear him present an uncritical picture of J. Edgar Hoover, whom he lauded for his filing system innovations.
Ultimately there wasn't much in Gray Day to distinguish it from a second-rate spy thriller except that most of it is, theoretically, true. Unfortunately O'Neill admits in the end that he changed a bunch of stuff in the name of poetic license — and I would not be surprised if he changed even more than he revealed. Gray Day benefits from being based in fact, but that's about the only thing going for it.
The investigation was really interesting. I've been reading up on it since I finished this book, but I really didn't care much for all the personal details. I understand that it's the author's experience, but did I really need to know about every single issue he and his wife had during this time?
I am glad to have this story from Mr. Neill's perspective.
informative
medium-paced
I don’t normally read non-fiction but I had heard this author being interviewed and thought I’d give it a try.
So glad I did. It was eye-opening, interesting and a little scary. I’d recommend it!
So glad I did. It was eye-opening, interesting and a little scary. I’d recommend it!
I received an advanced reading copy of this book via Goodreads giveaway, which has no bearing on my review.
First of all, I'm not a huge nonfiction fan, but I do love a good memoir and twisty-turny thrillers, so this seemed an interesting enough mash-up on which to take a chance.
I did like O'Neill's writing style. He can tell a story. I did not, however, like the way parts of the narrative were arranged. Whether that was due to author or editor, or whether those parts were moved in the finished copy, I don't know.
I thought the earliest parts that detailed Hanssen's spy activities were misplaced. They broke the narrative flow as we were getting to see how O'Neill was trying to uncover traces of Hanssen's guilt by telling us exactly how Hanssen had been doing things and for how long. It was anticlimactic to say the least.
Still, it was an interesting read, even if I did slog through it over the span of 3 weeks. Just okay for me.
2 out of 5 stars.
First of all, I'm not a huge nonfiction fan, but I do love a good memoir and twisty-turny thrillers, so this seemed an interesting enough mash-up on which to take a chance.
I did like O'Neill's writing style. He can tell a story. I did not, however, like the way parts of the narrative were arranged. Whether that was due to author or editor, or whether those parts were moved in the finished copy, I don't know.
I thought the earliest parts that detailed Hanssen's spy activities were misplaced. They broke the narrative flow as we were getting to see how O'Neill was trying to uncover traces of Hanssen's guilt by telling us exactly how Hanssen had been doing things and for how long. It was anticlimactic to say the least.
Still, it was an interesting read, even if I did slog through it over the span of 3 weeks. Just okay for me.
2 out of 5 stars.
Quick read. Interesting story. Horribly written and edited. It's obvious that there wasn't content enough to write a full book so he stretched it immensely. I really didn't need to read so much about his relationship with his wife, and lots of it felt false as well.
I liked this a lot. The Robert Hanssen story is endlessly fascinating and this was an easy read. It added a lot of nuanced detail to the story.