A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family [Hardcover]

H.L. Goodall Jr. (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1598740415 | ISBN-13: 978-1598740417 | Publication Date: April 30, 2006 | Edition: 1St Edition

In scenes eerily parallel to the culture of fear inspired by our current War on Terror, A Need to Know explores the clandestine history of a CIA family defined, and ultimately destroyed, by their oath to keep toxic secrets during the Cold War. When Bud Goodall’s father mysteriously died, his inheritance consisted of three well-worn books: a Holy Bible, The Great Gatsby, and a diary. But they turned his life upside down. From the diary Goodall learned that his father had been a CIA operative during the height of the Cold War, and the Bible and Gatsby had been his codebooks. Many unexplained facets of Bud’s childhood came into focus with this revelation.The high living in Rome and London. The blood-stained stiletto in his jewelry case. Bud, as a child, was always told he never had “a need to know.” Or did he? Now, as an adult and a university professor, Goodall attempts to fill in the missing pieces of his Cold War childhood by uncovering a lifetime of family secrets. Who were his parents? What did his father do on those business trips when he was “working for the government?” What betrayal turned a heroic career of national service into a nightmare of alcoholism, depression, and premature death for both of his parents? Slowly, inexorably, Goodall unearths the chilling secrets of a CIA family in A Need to Know. 2006 Best Book Award, National Communication Association Ethnography Division

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Interview with H.L. Goodall, Jr.
Why did you write this book?
There were three reasons. First, as I explain in the preface, I wrote it because I thought my parents deserved a better story than the one I had previously assigned to them. Given that so much of our lives together was shrouded in secrecy and given that I really didn’t know very much about the truth of their lives, I thought it was about time to find out. The second reason, and really the most compelling one, was that my own son had reached an age where he wanted to know about his grandparents and I found myself repeating to him the same half-truths and omissions that I had grown up with. I knew he deserved something better than that. Finally, I wrote it because I wanted to find a relationship to my father that previously had eluded both of us. I tell the story of listening to Bob Edwards interview Pat Conroy on afternoon as I was driving home from work, and hearing Conroy’s account of wanting to write about his father, and feeling a certain connection that truly stopped me in my tracks.

From the Inside Flap

In scenes eerily parallel to the culture of fear inspired by our current War on Terror, A Need to Know explores the clandestine history of a CIA family defined, and ultimately destroyed, by their oath to keep toxic secrets during the Cold War.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Left Coast Press; 1St Edition edition (April 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1598740415
• ISBN-13: 978-1598740417
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,555,200 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A History Lesson With a Storyline, May 10, 2006

By 

R. Boylorn - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family (Hardcover)

In the preface of this book Goodall explains that he writes it for his son, Nic, in order to answer questions he often asked about his grandparents. He also writes the book for his father and namesake, his mother, and for himself. As a reader and autobiographical writer, I can't help but feel that he also wrote the book for me, and others like me, who have an incomplete family narrative and needed a template to follow. He says he wrote the book "to help others find in [his] story a way to understand their own." I have.

Joining personal narrative, politics, memory and honesty, this amazing book reads as a conversation with the author as he invites the reader to join him on a journey that collapses time and offers a history lesson with a storyline. As a writer he helps me imagine it and see it. As a storyteller he helps me understand it. It is beautifully written!

This work is unique and enchanting. Carefully orchestrated and outlined, we follow Goodall as he traces a legacy that began before he was born. He uncovers secrets, discovers himself, and recovers his "narrative inheritance." I found myself reading in the midst of the noise and chaos of a busy airport and full household, yet not being distracted from the places, the people, the implications, the pain, and the story he tells. The story echoes in my head even now that I have read the last pages and returned to the beginning to read it again.

Goodall says his parents left him "a gift of understanding history in a very human way." He selflessly shares this gift with readers.

I highly recommend it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What If Everything You Know About Your Family Is Wrong?, June 23, 2006

By 

Andrew Herrmann - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family (Hardcover)

Imagine your child starts asking questions about your family. Imagine you don't have any answers.

Imagine your father left you three things when he died: a Bible, a well-worn copy of The Great Gatsby, and a diary. Oh, and lots of questions.

Imagine you found out Dad was actually an agent for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Welcome to the beginning of Bud Goodall's dilemma. This book is Goodall's attempt to make sense of a childhood enmeshed in secrecy.

Like all good writers, Goodall doesn't tell us what is happening, he shows us. Wonderfully written, A Need to Know is a family story, a historical record, and a detective novel wrapped up into one. At times it is simultaneously tense, sorrowful, and enlightening. With the care of a researcher and the writing style of a novelist, Goodall enchants the reader, pushing and pulling us through the mazes, twists, turns and terrifying truth of living through a family slowly torn apart by secrets - all in the name of National Security during the years of the Cold War.

Just as in his previous works - Casing a Promised Land and Living the Rock n Roll Mystery - Goodall takes you inside. You see what he sees. You learn what he learns.

Goodall has done it again. Only this time he's done it better.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gripping Historical Narrative, February 21, 2006

By 

Harvey Wiener (Tempe, Arizona) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Need to Know: The Clandestine History of a CIA Family (Hardcover)

I was fortunate to obtain an advance copy of Dr. Goodall's book. The time period spanned corresponds to the evolution of American intelligence and counterintelligence. To intelligently overlay a personal history upon this era without too much emotion or editorialization is a unique talent that Dr. Goodall obviously posesses. To be able to write in a manner that flows from one chapter to the next is an ability that not all writers are capable of. Anyone who has an interest in this period of history will find this narrative enlightening from many perspectives.