Review: Life Undercover: Coming of Age in the CIA

by Amaryllis Fox (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019)

Life Undercover, a riveting true-adventure memoir, reveals how and why a young woman decides to work for the Central Intelligence Agency. In clear, elegant prose, Amaryllis Fox describes an unconventional international childhood and a series of choices that lead her to become a CIA field operative. In addition, she covers gritty details of spy craft and takes readers on a journey that isn't normally possible without top security clearance and years of training and sacrifice. Through excellent storytelling, she explains her yearning to make a real difference in the world by preventing terror attacks, but also reflects on her inner doubts.

Fox, born in 1980, writes about growing up with major world events shaping her life view. At age eight, she loses her friend Laura, who is killed on an aircraft bombed by Libyan terrorists over Lockerbie, Scotland. Her father coaches her to read the newspaper in order to better understand global occurrences. After the Berlin Wall is dismantled in 1989 and diplomatic developments lead to the thawing of Cold War relations, Fox and her brother Ben are able to spend a school break with their father in Moscow, where he is working as an economist in the emerging free market. Read full review on BookBrowse along with short essay on nuclear disarmament.