barbara fister reviewed The Amateur Spy by Dan Fesperman
Review of 'The Amateur Spy' on 'LibraryThing'
An exhausted, disillusioned aid worker is ready to retreat to an island in Greece with his wife, but some shadowy government types have other plans for him. He's blackmailed into becoming a spy, without really knowing how to do it or what exactly he's after. The strengths of this book include some memorable characters and a vivid sense of Jordan. Not so strong - the narrator (whose first person story alternates with third person scenes focused on a Muslim woman in Washington who is trying to figure out what her angry husband is up to) is sometimes annoying company; the motivations of the two major characters don't always feel quite strong enough for what they end up doing; and a certain imbalance between the thriller aspects of the plot and the much more down-to-earth and interesting treatment of Jordan and its Palestinian population. Fesperman is a fine writer, and this …
An exhausted, disillusioned aid worker is ready to retreat to an island in Greece with his wife, but some shadowy government types have other plans for him. He's blackmailed into becoming a spy, without really knowing how to do it or what exactly he's after. The strengths of this book include some memorable characters and a vivid sense of Jordan. Not so strong - the narrator (whose first person story alternates with third person scenes focused on a Muslim woman in Washington who is trying to figure out what her angry husband is up to) is sometimes annoying company; the motivations of the two major characters don't always feel quite strong enough for what they end up doing; and a certain imbalance between the thriller aspects of the plot and the much more down-to-earth and interesting treatment of Jordan and its Palestinian population. Fesperman is a fine writer, and this book is worth reading, even if (in my opinion) it's not his best.