Our American Friend by Anna Pitoniak

​   The idea behind this was that if anyone can draw me in to the tangled web of spy thrillers, it would be someone like Pitoniak, an author whose previous books I’ve read and loved. And sure enough, it worked. Good strategy,me.
    Pinoniak blended two worlds in her novel, the modern barely fictionalized US and the Iron Curtained Europe of the 10’s and 80s so well, so thrillingly indeed, it was difficult to put down. Even for this reader with very limited interest in spy games of all sorts.
    My fiancé has watched all of The Americans tv show last year, so while I’ve not ever sat down through an entire episode, for a long time it was so consistently in the background and I’ve heard so much about it, that it kind of intrigued me. At the very least it made me recognize the appeal of the ever shifting loyalties and shadowy deals and the ever increasing moral shades of grey, the neverending dreadtinged suspense and that very specific doom and gloom of the not so warm war that in my mind is so synonymous with the spy genre. And this book really gets that and represents all these aspects so well.
    The basic plot has to do with an America that has managed to elect (and reelect) a dangerously belligerent populist amoral racist bigoted liar to power…which is just preposterous, of course, what thriving democracy would do that, right? This man, made wealthy by his inheritance and famous by his volume, is married to an Eastern European former model, who for all the world to see presents as a perfectly two dimensional cardboard cutout of a trophy wife. But that’s where fiction enters the picture, because apparently the FLOTUS has some layers to her, secrets that can unravel the very face and fabric of the Oval Office.
    And so the FLOTUS, Lara Caine, hires a reporter to write her biography, although this being a spy thriller, you can expect everyone has clandestine motives of their own. For the reporter it would, of course, be a huge scoop, a huge deal, but for Lara it may be something much more, not just an unburdening, but a chance at something like justice after years and years of silence.
   Sounds riveting…because it is. You know something’s gone off the rails, because the novel starts with the reporter hiding out in Europe, watching her back, twitching the curtains. But the story pivots, alternating timelines, until you know exactly what’s going on. Though the plot will do a striking job of executing serpentine twists and turns to get to the end and then throw in one last reveal…which is, frankly, the thing that didn’t quite work for me, but either way…riveting.
     So yeah, ok, I kind of get it now, the genre appeal. It is exciting if done right. In fact, the novel never shines more than when it covers Lara’s early years. All that communism flavored KGB crafted excitement. Wow.
    Plus with Pitoniak being a genuinely great writer, there’s plenty of things like character development and atmosphere crafting to rely on. This novel comes to life resoundingly and cinematically. At the very least as exciting as The Americans.  Yes, it was uncomfortably (and arguably unimaginatively) close to real life, but then again what a fun reminder of how creative minds work and see stories where some might not, imagine layers to what for all the world to see might be just a drawing of an onion. Very well done. I was thoroughly entertained. A shadowy delight for both new and old spy genre fans. Recommended. Thanks Netgalley.