Expensive Education [Paperback]

Nick McDonell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2010

Now in paperback, a remarkable new novel from Nick McDonell, "An Expensive Education" cuts between the African bush and Harvard - taking its readers deep inside this iconic university and the inner workings of the American intelligence service. An army roadblock. An American intelligence agent. A jetlagged afternoon on the Somalian plain. Michael Teak is not afraid of mercenaries. Life here comes at a price and as a CIA operative, Teak is holding the money. On the back seat of his car is a suitcase stuffed with narcotics; in the front, a gun and an envelope of US dollars. And then a bomb explodes. Thirty innocent victims. An entire village of women and children - all dead. And just like that, Michael Teak does not know anything for sure. Was he the target, or the scapegoat for mass murder with an international fallout? Abandoned, perhaps betrayed, by his employer, Teak is in the wind with nowhere to turn. Even his old sources are caught up in the media bloodbath back at his alma mater. These events have to be connected. Someone, somewhere, has all the cards and for a man running right down to the wire, the rules of the game are becoming dangerously blurred.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

McDonell's third novel, a story of the messy consequences attendant upon a rogue American operation conducted against a Somalian freedom fighter, introduces a spy who could have easily walked off the pages of le Carré's better works. An American agent and recent Harvard graduate, Michael Teak has been assigned to deliver money to a band of east African freedom fighters led by local hero Hatashil. But while they're meeting, the village is decimated by a missile strike. Immediately, a mysterious story hits the wire, claiming Hatashil's men massacred the villagers. The news coincides with the Pulitzer Prize being awarded to a Harvard professor, Susan Lowell, whose book celebrates Hatashil. As Teak tries to come to terms with his own apparent expendability, Lowell fights vilification when a video that purportedly shows her pledging to kill for Hatashil surfaces. Meanwhile, an old Agency hand, Alan Green—Harvard alum and godfather to Teak—ties the stories together with his nefarious black world maneuverings. Teak is the most attractive fictional spy in quite some time, and even if the Harvard subplots feel too self-indulgent and insidery, one hopes this isn't Teak's only appearance. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Critics praised McDonell's third foray into fiction as an engaging mixture of political thriller and campus novel. Even those who found minor faults with its lack of depth and lack of moral ambiguity commended McDonell's vibrant writing and feverish, page-turning pace. Though the plot isn't terribly innovative and the central mystery is quickly solved, Teak's disarming idealism and sulky soul searching—"more Holden Caulfield than James Bond" (New York Times Book Review)—propel the story forward and give it charm. Critics also appreciated McDonell's caustic behind-the-scenes tour of his alma mater and his biting descriptions of its privileged elite. Compared to Graham Greene and John le Carré for his storytelling skills, McDonell has proved that the third time is the charm. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Books (October 1, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1848870639
• ISBN-13: 978-1848870635
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A screenplay disguised as a book., September 13, 2009

By 

Hubcap (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: An Expensive Education (Hardcover)

It's not terrible, but An Expensive Education doesn't deserve the hype it's been getting. It has characters, but no real characterization. Every person in the book speaks in the same voice, and it's the voice of a male Harvard graduate in his mid-twenties who grew up in a world of privilege. McDonell relies on brand names (Prada, Louboutin) and band names (Genghis Tron - twice! They must be friends...) to provide personalities for his characters; a lazy trick that might be acceptable for a screenplay but is weak in a book. I'm sure An Expensive Education has been optioned to Hollywood already. With actual actors to flesh out the weak character sketches, it might even make a pretty good movie. But as a book, I'd pass.

The plot itself is fine, and it is a quick read. But don't be fooled; this is not a book about Africa but rather a book about Harvard people vying for status via Africa. In theory the plot revolves around a massacre an African village, but the key dramatic hinge is really, "will the professor's Pulitzer Prize be revoked?" I'm not sure why I should care about that. But it does give you an idea of where the author's head is at. If you've ever spent a sleepless night worried about YOUR Pulitzer Prize being revoked, I'm sure you will find this book riveting. Me...not so much.

As for the breathy comparisons to Graham Greene, we've all said things we wish we hadn't and I'm sure those reviewers will regret it in the morning.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars An Expensive Education is Great, but Experience is Priceless, September 5, 2009

By 

J. A. Walsh (Boston, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Expensive Education (Hardcover)

I have not read Nick McDonell's much-ballyhooed novel "Twelve," which he wrote as a mere 17-year old. But, having read "An Expensive Education," an espionage thriller he submits at the tender age of 25, my guess is that he was better served by the more familiar environment of Manhattan's upper crust adolescent playrgrounds.

"An Expensive Education" makes all the right noises. It feels like LeCarre - to continue a debate undertaken by two other reviews - in all the familiar places, but its hollow. McDonell goes through the motions of mystery, of relationships, of mothers and fathers, husbands and wives, and professional politics.

The artifice is particularly glaring when McDonnel tries to write his female protagonist, Harvard professor and Pulitzer winner Susan Lowell, a character he writes with a sexuality that feels forced and formulaic. Where McDonell does hit on all cylinders is right in the dorm rooms and campus coffee klatches of Harvard.

Writing David - his African ex-pat - McDonell's voice finds an artful and authentic angst, longing, and inner conflict: brilliance and ambition clashing with insecurity and fear. His Harvard CIA man, Teak, is too much of a stretch for McDonnel as he troops through international intrigue on Africa's horn, and he becomes more a lens for the plot than a character in his own right.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unrealized potential, December 1, 2009

By 

Matthew Pinzur (Miami, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: An Expensive Education (Hardcover)

An Expensive Education is more than the sum of its parts, which is fortunate but makes it difficult to write a review that reflects its nature. For an author whose talent was lauded at a very early age, the writing is sometimes painfully immature. He is overly expository in early going, especially when he rushes to introduce every aspect of a character upon their first appearance. The plot - a 21st-century twist on the 70s-cinema themes of political subterfuge, double-cross and nesting dolls of suspicion - is ripe for a more involved treatment than it actually receives. The characters, of which there are just a few too many, are usually little more than tools to advance the plot around three major players: a painfully unlikable caricature of a precious Harvard newspaper writer and aspiring intellectual, her African-born boyfriend who is self-aware yet still itching to assimilate, and a CIA operative whose conscience belies his mission. Of those, only David - the boyfriend, a stranger in a strange land that he years to adopt - has any measurable complexity.

Nonetheless, this story compels. In an industry overwhelmed by kiddie vampire novels, ham-fisted Brownian adventure tales and disposable serial-killer mysteries, An Expensive Education dares to raise social, political and personal questions in the context of a page-turning thriller. You're unlikely to put it down midstream, but equally unlikely to feel satisfied when it's over. Ultimately, its great shame is its vast unrealized potential - McDonell has barely scratched the surface of his own creative notions and raises a most interesting literary questions: is he bumping against the limitations of his own talent, or afraid to tread in the places where noir pulp evolves into something more interesting?