Review: The Author Presumes too Much of the Reader
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 23, 2014
I am a news junkie and am much more informed about the Middle East than your average reader.  I have also traveled to the area a number of times although I have never been to Beirut.  In spite of this, I found the book to be pretty hard to read and follow.  First the author spends considerable amounts of time talking about businesses, streets, green lines etc. etc. but includes no maps to orient the reader.  I would have preferred some maps instead of all the verbal gymnastics.  Second, the author talks about all of the political groups, where they dominate, etc. etc.  I have some knowledge of these groups and their allegiances, but it really is too much to expect the reader to keep up with all their names, who they represent, and what they are trying to accomplish, especially from thirty years ago.  Also I find it kind of boring that the author is telling a story about spying etc. when the technology was fax machines, onionskin paper, and physical message drops, who is really interested in how these things were done years ago.I also found it really hard to keep track of the characters and who they were, I did not find it interesting to try to remember who was doing what.  This was a book were the Kindle X-ray would have helped but it was not included in this book.  Also the characters were very one dimensional, so the reader never really get's a chance to understand who they are.In my mind the two biggest events in Lebanon were the bombing of the marine barracks and the U.S, embassy and so I thought all the way through the book that the author was leading up to these really important events.  Unfortunately the story is not about the build-up to these events because they never happen in the book.  How is it possible they are not included?  The one thing I did get from the book is that the life of a spy in Beirut during the eighties was pretty boring, highly risky, and very shallow.  I understand from the author's background that he has an in-depth experience in the area.  He needs to use it to tell a better story, not presume that his audience has the same knowledge of the area that he does, and spend more time developing the characters instead of describing what kind of car they are driving.