Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time
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The American

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

April 22, 2020 by Jake Leave a Comment

American Spy is a difficult book to pull off. A slow burn literary spy novel in which the concept of subterfuge is used symbolically to examine race, gender, immigration and the long reach of colonialism. The book has a lot of heavy lifting to do. Fortunately, it’s in the hands of a capable writer Lauren Wilkinson knows what she’s doing. The strength of it is in its primary character. Marie Mitchell is a complex person and Wilkinson allows her to be complex while trusting the reader […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: american spy, Burkina Faso, espionage, lauren wilkinson

Jake's CBR12 Review No:72 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: american spy, Burkina Faso, espionage, lauren wilkinson ·
· 0 Comments

Less thriller, more meditation

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

February 7, 2020 by chilejamie Leave a Comment

American Spy opens with a literal bang, the way most spy novels do. But then it becomes something different – more of a memoir, more of a reckoning with the past that led to the opening shot. Marie, the titular spy, is the lone black female employee in her FBI field office. Attacked in her home, she flees New York to her mother’s country of Martinique; meanwhile, she reflects on her girlhood with her sister, now deceased, and her time as a spy during the […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: Africa, FBI, lauren wilkinson, Race, spy, women

chilejamie's CBR12 Review No:5 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: Africa, FBI, lauren wilkinson, Race, spy, women ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments

I pictured you both asleep, and told myself I was being irrational.

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

March 21, 2019 by vel veeter Leave a Comment

So this book begins with a mother narrating, handwriting we find out, a journal to her young sons. The opening scene she is arrested after shooting a man in her home with a gun that’s not hers and taken into custody. She reveals to us that she is a former FBI agent who has also done contract work with the CIA. Then the story fractures into a few different timelines. We learn about her family history and her childhood as the daughter of a Black […]

Filed Under: Fiction Tagged With: american spy, lauren wilkinson

vel veeter's CBR11 Review No:156 · Genres: Fiction · Tags: american spy, lauren wilkinson ·
Rating:
· 0 Comments


Recent Comments

  • Zirza on A Gothic Classic for a ReasonIt's one of those wish-you-could-read-it-again-for-the-first-time books. I loved it.
  • Emmalita on “It came to something when you found yourself hoping that the footsteps you heard were ghosts.”I loved the ending! I don’t think it’s been out long enough to talk about why though.
  • Dixie on Track Her Down by Melinda LeighI am just starting Track Her Down and I have read them all in order till now and thought I...
  • Roland of Gilead on How can you give us the gift of a crazy character named Rando Thoughtful and then just as suddenly take that gift away? We need to talk, Uncle Stevie.I came across this randomly years after it was written because I was searching "Random Thoughtful. But I have the...
  • Emmalita on “Only you, Em, would refer to heartbreak as a distraction. I think I would have a more sympathetic response if I asked to marry a bookcase.”Oh my goodness, Gallifrey was beautiful. I’m sure her mittens were gloriously murdery.
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