Reviews of A Good Spy Leaves No Trace
5 stars. “‘A Good Spy Leaves No Trace’ is a fiercely human, well-informed study of love, responsibility, deceit, and greed. Although this account was not the cloak-and-dagger tale you might expect about a CIA agent-turned-international consultant, peril was no stranger to Jim Eichelberg (Eich) and is whispered more than once in the psyche of his daughter, author Anne Tazewell. As she pieces together her father’s legacy, Tazewell also delivers a pertinent and poignant tale of self-discovery. Eich’s world-wise life, touched by extravagance and the accoutrements of royalty, seems to eclipse his daughter’s middle-class existence, where she found reward in human bonds and environmental activism. In balancing career, conscience, and family, Anne’s life materialized in total contrast to her father’s seeming indifference to family, the environment, and political ethics.
Anne Tazewell’s work shows an understanding of several decades of US/Arab relations as well as the changing values of government and the public in an entertaining and informative account of how big oil, power, and greed transformed not just a man and his family, but also the world. She examines the costs of war, power, and wealth, weaving two diverse but related threads into an accessible read for anyone seeking an uncommon perspective on life, relationships, and the world.
This piece transitions smoothly among subplots that are disjointed in space and time, compelling you to probe further into the worlds of Anne’s real-life characters, but begs many questions. You might wonder if she ever found Eich’s manuscript, if her son ever conquered his addiction, if she ever forgave her father. You might also ask yourself “What motivates people?” “Have international affairs been propelled more by protection or profiteering?” “How deeply are government and big business really intertwined?”
Coincidence and unforeseen twists of fate keep the intrigue alive as characters develop: Anne’s parents, her children, and she herself as daughter, sister, mother, wife, and friend. As Anne traces Eich’s footsteps through university, war, writing, and espionage, she revisits her own progression through study, travel, work, and motherhood. The author leaves us to question more deeply Eich’s legacy and his debt to society. Are we overly judgmental toward a man who grew up in a world where “air quality” and “political ethics” were not household expressions¬? Were his priorities so misplaced in the world in which he lived? Is deceit sometimes necessary to protect a fragile democracy? Did Eich have a tender side that manifested itself disproportionately to that of his daughter? How did an artist, devoted mother, and environmentalist emerge from the ashes of an international adventurist and opportunist?
A Good Spy Leaves No Trace unlocks the secrets of a man’s wanderlust and search for fulfillment, as Ms.Tazewell reflects on her own yearnings—father and daughter reaching destinies that are worlds apart. As she unearths her father’s deceit, infidelity, and addiction, she probes degrees of these same traits in herself. Although this account focuses chiefly on Anne’s search for the truth about her estranged father, she bares her soul in an honest examination of her own shortcomings, and perhaps prompts us to do the same.”
— Beth Keena, for NetGalley
5 stars. “What a fascinating, fast-paced story about family, political history and spies. It was so riveting! I really enjoyed learning about Anne’s family history. What a great read!”
— Lauren Rush, for NetGalley
“This is a fascinating, well-researched and well-written family memoir/biography, and I very much enjoyed it. Anne Tazewell’s father left the family when she was just six and she rarely saw him after that. Working as an environmentalist attempting to reduce the world’s reliance on oil, she was naturally intrigued to discover the role her father James M Eichelberger had played in the geopolitics of the Middle East and the development of the oil industry. The book is at once an exploration of that industry, the CIA’s involvement in it and the key role her father played. It’s an emotional project for her, as she tries to understand her father’s motivation, and it is indeed a murky tale. We’re inured these days to the shock of learning of the shenanigans of the CIA in trying to influence world affairs, but reading about their involvement in this area still manages to shock. She chronicles her own life and career here as well, and mostly I found this equally interesting, although I felt that the inclusion of her own children’s sometimes dysfunctional stories rather distracted from the main narrative. Overall, however, this is well worth reading, and I learnt a lot.”
— Mandy Jenkinson, for NetGalley