Overworld: The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy [Hardcover]

Larry J. Kolb (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 7, 2004

A vivid and gripping portrait of a spy at every stage of his life and career, from the son of a spymaster who became a spy himself.

Larry Kolb was born into a house of spies. Raised all over the world as the son of a high-ranking American spymaster, Kolb was taught by his father to think, look, and listen like a spy. But when Kolb himself was recruited to join the CIA, he declined, choosing instead to pursue a career in business. He became, among other things, Muhammad Ali's agent, a role that turned out to be a circuitous route back to the world of espionage.

At Ali's side, Kolb had invitations to the parties, palaces, boardrooms, and bedrooms-especially in the Middle East-of many of the world's wealthiest and most powerful people. At one of those parties, Kolb befriended Adnan Khashoggi, then the richest man in the world, and the world's most prominent arms dealer; Kolb ended up marrying one of his daughters. Kolb's extraordinary access made him irresistible to legendary spymaster and CIA cofounder Miles Copeland. Beginning with secret negotiations with the Ayatollah Khomeini and a covert mission to Beirut with Ali to negotiate the release of an American hostage, Kolb found his way back to the family business, becoming Miles Copeland's eyes and ears and sometimes mouth in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Peru, the Philippines, and Pakistan.

Unlike any book before it, Overworld captures what it genuinely means and feels like to be a spy-from the practical to the emotional, revealing how the world of espionage and covert statecraft actually works-and exposing the dark heart of a life spent betraying confidences. In itself an adventure story of the highest order, Overworld reads like the best of John le Carré-but it's all true.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As Kolb spins a tale of international intrigue in which he does everything from accompany Muhammad Ali on a mission to free American hostages in Beirut to introduce Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega to an Indian holy man, it's awfully tempting to consider him a hoaxster à la Chuck Barris—but all it takes is a little online research to produce corroborating details. Kolb actually is connected to international arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi by marriage; stories in Indian newspapers confirm that government wants him in connection with a plot against a former premier involving that same holy man. Pretty soon, a reader will believe that Kolb, the son of a Cold War intelligence operative who grew up in post-WWII Japan and Germany, really was recruited by legendary spy Miles Copeland because his jet-setting lifestyle put him in all the right places. Slangily written from a safe house "on a sunny shore," Kolb's recollection of his training in the fundamentals of spycraft is a particularly engrossing section that will leave readers convinced they know enough to run their own clandestine operations. It's the centerpiece around which he weaves a slew of anecdotes stretching back to WWII, producing a cumulative effect that renders the whole story so amazing that readers will conclude that even the wildest bits—like his taking credit for rewriting the blueprints for the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages deal—have got to be true.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

A secret agent's memoir has a built-in credibility problem. But some basic parts of Kolb's remarkable life appear to be true: his father was a senior U.S. intelligence agent, he absorbed the style if not the specifics of the game from Dad (he would eventually work with the CIA), he befriended and represented the retired Muhammad Ali for years, and he became a member of the inner circle of Saudi magnate Adnan Khashoggi. All this became a heady cocktail for Kolb, and it will be for readers, as we are seductively, seamlessly guided through a life of first-class travel and lodging, intimate encounters with the world's movers and shakers, and a peek into the mindset of a spy. It all seems too easy, and it was: Kolb eventually worked the wrong deal, finding himself an apparent target for assassination by Indian secret police and living in a Florida safe house, from where he says he wrote this book. A great read, but consider the source. Alan Moores
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Hardcover; First edition. edition (October 7, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573222534
• ISBN-13: 978-1573222532
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #882,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Larry J. Kolb was born in the United States and raised around the world. He has lived, among other places, in Washington, New York, London, Berlin, Japan, Switzerland, South Africa, and in a safe house on a beach in Florida. As the son of a senior American intelligence official, Kolb was recruited by the CIA when he was twenty-two years old, but he declined. Instead he became a businessman, and the following year was featured on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. While still in his twenties, Kolb became an agent for professional athletes, including Muhammad Ali. This brought Kolb into contact with many of the world's most powerful and wealthiest people, especially in the Middle East, and made him almost irresistible to legendary CIA cofounder Miles Copeland. When Copeland recruited Kolb, Kolb said yes, and soon he was involved in covert intrigues in Beirut, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Nicaragua, Peru, Pakistan, and India, as well as the halls of power in London, New York, and Washington. With Copeland, Kolb cowrote white papers for the President of the United States and the National Security Council. While running a covert propaganda campaign for Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Kolb anonymously wrote a widely-published series of investigative newspaper reports that electrified India. After Gandhi's assassination, Kolb found himself in a safe house in Florida with little to do but listen to waves roll in and put down on paper extraordinary true stories drawn from his own life experiences.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Now that I know it's true, I'm reading it again., November 21, 2004

By 

Jim, a reader in Connecticut "Jim" (Hartford, Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overworld: The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy (Hardcover)

I bought this book because, like so many others in our country right now, I'm interested in intelligence and how it works, and also because the inside cover says Muhammad Ali, who is my all-time hero of heroes is one of the characters in the book. And so he is. Among the many surprises you'll find in its pages, this book tells of Ali on a secret mission for the White House in Beirut negotiating with Islamic terrorists for the release of American hostages, and actually succeeding in getting one of them out. Like so many of the other stories interwoven into this beautifully-written book, it seems so real and yet it left me wondering how could all of this be true? And so I started checking. We live in the age of Google and Nexis - so checking wasn't as hard as you might think. Google this book's author Larry Kolb and you will find dozens, maybe hundreds of stories from Indian newspapers about his role in a covert operation he ran for his friend Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi years ago. Input the right keywords and you'll find out it's true that the Indian government still wants Kolb in connection with this case, and that it's true that, as Kolb writes, the U.S. government refused to extradite him. I also found references to Kolb and Ali, things they've done together, with Google. The Beirut story I couldn't find on Google. But, because I have free access to Nexis thru my company, I was able to find an old Newsweek report about Muhammad Ali on a peace mission to Beirut, just at the time that Kolb said he was there with Ali. The only part that was missing from the Newsweek article was the fact that Ali's mission had been secretly sponsored by the White House. Reading the old newspaper and magazine articles about that and other events Kolb writes about, suddenly you get the impression that what Kolb is telling in this book is the deeper truth, the secret deals and other missing details that were left out of the news stories - because the reporters just didn't know the whole truth. But Kolb was there, behind the scenes, and after several years in hiding to think about it, he's decided to let us in on how things really work in the overworld. I don't want to give away one of the most amazing surprises of the book here, but with a little creative searching with Google, I even found evidence of what to me was the most amazing surprise of the entire book,which occurs near the end. Now that I know it's true, I'm reading the whole thing again, and I can't put it down. You won't be able to either.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars BRILLIANT, AMAZING, WONDERFUL., January 28, 2005

By 

Tommy in Saratoga "TH" (Saratoga, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overworld: The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy (Hardcover)

Larry Kolb is like one of those interesting people you meet and you hear them telling their stories and you say to them, "You should write a book." Only Larry Kolb actually does go write the book--and you're very glad he did. He's like a brilliant Forrest Gump. A genius instead of stupid. But how he gets himself into situations! Wonderful!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing life story beautifully written., January 9, 2005

By 

Mallory O. "Mallory" (Chicago, Illinois, Hog Butcher to the World) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Overworld: The Life and Times of a Reluctant Spy (Hardcover)

Five stars because this is an amazing life story beautifully written. Not only does Kolb have a wonderful eye for the telling detail, his writing is transparent and accessible in a way that for the first time demystified spying and intelligence for me. Finally I understand what it's all about, in all its complexity and yet also in very simple and human terms. Beyond that, this book is an astute character study of several remarkable men who've shaped Kolb's life: his father, a Cold War spymaster; Muhammad Ali, one of Kolb's closest friends; Adnan Khashoggi, the mysterious Saudi dealmaker and statesman who in his prime was the richest man in the world; Miles Copeland, one of the founders of the CIA and perhaps its most colorful operative ever, who was Kolb's guide into the secret world; and Chandraswami, Indian holy-man-and-snake-oil-salesman extraordinaire. It's written like a novel, and its even got good sex scenes. How Kolb ever survived it all to write about it is a mystery to me. But I'm glad he did.