Theroux made an unusual set of career transitions from journalist (Wall Street Journal) to feature story writer (National Geographic) to book author (Translating LA) to translator from Arabic (Cities of Salt) to intelligence analyst (Central Intelligence Agency) to bureaucrat (Department of State) to policy advisor (National Security Council). In this preliminary part of a two-part book, he focuses on the latter two roles, offering a cynical but genuine take on government work, "without sensationalism or score-settling."
As befits a literary man, Theroux tosses off one-liners through the book. Noting that Syrian propaganda rarely calls Israel by its name, preferring Occupied Palestine, the Zionist Entity, or the Zionist Usurping Power, he comments that, "Like Allah, Israel seemed to have ninety-nine names." As an intelligence agent, he felt "a kinship with the stunt actors, who worked in the shadows, whose names would never show in bright lights, but who made the mission work." The CIA has the unenviable task of just delivering problems "with the awkwardness of being the bad-news people without solutions." "The hardest part about the White House job was ... not global crises, but getting clothes dry cleaned" (because of lack of time). "Lifers in the policy world often did outlive the revolving-door tribe who were their supposed superiors."
Theroux also has an eye for the odd and the insightful, such as the senior Saudi royal who "was fairly gasping with contempt over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem: "He looked at the map and shook his head in disbelief. 'I have palaces ten times that size,' he snorted." Theroux calls the Middle East a region that "once held an allure to a reporter of wealth, holy places, royalty, and war [but] had turned stagnant and stale." Osama bin Laden, like Yasser Arafat, "had won most of his battles at a microphone."
Theroux comes away from his experiences in a good mood: "There was nothing about me [the Saudis] did not hate. This always cheered me up when I was feeling low." One looks forward to Part II.
