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A review by marsius
Left of Boom: How a Young CIA Case Officer Penetrated the Taliban and Al-Qaeda by Douglas Laux, Ralph Pezzullo
4.0
Many reviews seem to hate on the author for including details of his messy attempts at a social life. I actually quite appreciated them. His descriptions of the toll taken by his constant extended absences, inability to acknowledge what he actually did, and the sheer stresses of the job both on himself and those around him offered a glimpse into a rarely described aspect of the profession (if one that had been interpreted through the lens of a bro).
The book as a whole is good, though not great. I understand the redactions (and always appreciated the ones transparent to anyone who's watched even an hour of CNN), but they definitely interfered with what was otherwise reasonably well-flowing prose. The descriptions were engaging and I appreciated the chance to learn about how case officers work (not even an attempt to invoke Bond and Bourne).
Overall, four out of five. It's engaging and informative, but you can't help but feel as though he's trying to seek cool at points, and, whether they had purpose or not, the t factions were quite distracting.
The book as a whole is good, though not great. I understand the redactions (and always appreciated the ones transparent to anyone who's watched even an hour of CNN), but they definitely interfered with what was otherwise reasonably well-flowing prose. The descriptions were engaging and I appreciated the chance to learn about how case officers work (not even an attempt to invoke Bond and Bourne).
Overall, four out of five. It's engaging and informative, but you can't help but feel as though he's trying to seek cool at points, and, whether they had purpose or not, the t factions were quite distracting.