Customer Reviews

A Spy by Nature: A Novel (Alec Milius)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

George Bernard Shaw's famous observation that "The British and the Americans are two people separated by a common language" serves also to explain some important distinctions that American readers will find in the British mystery novel A SPY BY NATURE. In addition to the common language that separates the two nations, Charles Cumming's book reminds us of differences in philosophy and plot between the writing styles of many American and English authors. In the mystery field, American writers tend toward the physical and the violent. Their English counterparts seem a little more understated and less likely to resort to fisticuffs and mayhem. Although lacking almost any violence, A SPY BY NATURE nevertheless is an absorbing novel of the modern world of espionage. Its plot twists and double-dealing characters will have readers shaking their heads in wonder.

The story is semi-autobiographical as Cumming himself served for a period of time in England's MI6, a branch of their intelligence service. Indeed, the first 100 pages of the book serve as a primer for how one is recruited, interviewed and considered for service with British Intelligence. This description is detailed, tedious and sadly quite boring. However, these pages do introduce us to Alec Milius, the unsuccessful MI6 candidate whose rejection serves as the stepping-off point for the final two-thirds of the novel, which easily compensates for the tedium of the first third.

Alec Milius is certainly no James Bond. It's hard to characterize Milius as a hero in this novel. He is a pathological liar who apparently would lie even when the truth would better serve his purpose. Although deemed unqualified for MI6, he is recruited for industrial espionage. In the course of that action, the reader is introduced to many deftly portrayed characters, including the American couple who Milius must befriend in order to ultimately betray. The story is both understated and complex, and the conclusion will leave audiences with just enough unanswered questions to await Milius's return.

Reading A SPY BY NATURE requires effort by the reader, similar to a John le Carre or Graham Greene mystery. This is not meant to compare Cumming to either of these great writers. But this is not the kind of thriller in which harrowing escape and violent confrontation stimulate the reader from chapter to chapter, and the confrontation is not simply between good and evil. Instead, there are moral shades that make distinguishing between those two extremes much more difficult. Still, A SPY BY NATURE is a thoughtful and well-written mystery that many will find a refreshing change of pace from traditional spy thrillers.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

British subject Alec Milius is young, cocky, and unwilling to live his life "suspended between brilliance and mediocrity." He wants to make his mark in the world, not let it make its mark on him. Highly competitive and at root actually insecure, Alec sizes up everyone he encounters, testing their perceived weaknesses and attempting to turn them to his advantage. At age 24, he feels he's been handed the short end of the stick because he attended the London School of Economics rather than Oxford or Cambridge, and then fell into a fraudulent telemarketing job. So when an old school friend of his deceased father recommends him as a candidate for the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), aka, MI6, he jumps at it.

The first hundred pages of A SPY BY NATURE follow Alec as he navigates through interviews, intelligence tests, and group exercises with four other applicants. Everything is seen through Alec's perspective, including the others whom he meticulously dissects in his mind. He calculates his every move, plotting his contributions to a discussion about international relations as if he were playing chess, declining to evaluate himself for the written record, and choosing, in a one-on-one with a shrink, to lie about his current relationship with his former girlfriend, Kate.

Notified of the selection board's decision, Alec considers it another unfair assessment of his worth, and his state of mind leaves him ripe for recruitment to a lower level espionage operation. Soon, Alec is working "undercover" for an oil company. His mission is to become friendly with an American couple suspected of being industrial spies intent on obtaining strategic oil field data. Alec is confident he can play secret agent with the best of them. But the young man, who overestimates his own abilities and underestimates the stresses and dangers of this one-upmanship between two "allies," soon makes clumsy and unalterable mistakes. Too late, Alec realizes the big boys play for keeps, and he isn't a "big boy"....

The book jacket relates that Charles Cumming, the author of A SPY BY NATURE, went through a vetting process when he was approached by the SIS in 1995. This accounts for the detailed knowledge he exhibits of the "Sisby" (Civil Service Selection Board) which Alec takes. One would hope that the rest of Cumming's skillfully rendered plot is a product of his imagination rather than experience, but, regardless, the author constructs in narrator Alec a character whose self-delusions constrict him like a boa, and a plot that builds suspenseful dread as Alec slides into an untenable situation.

Not only does A SPY BY NATURE probe the requirements for being a "successful" spy, but it offers a fascinating character study of a young man who struggles to live a life filled with meaning, but whose own traits tear away his hopes in both private and professional arenas. This novel unhurriedly progresses through lengthy conversations between Alec and other memorable characters and his private mental ruminating and scheming. This is a cerebral spy story that achieves tragic climax without incorporating overblown action scenes. It's a superb piece of fiction that, aside from invading Alec's psyche, also delivers a keen warning about men (and women) who count on our willingness to rely on their seeming goodwill for our safety and peace of mind. They would not count themselves as corrupt. They would call themselves patriots and masters of fate. But Alec, who in many ways is naturally deceptive and corrupt, learns how fallacious such reliance is. In a contest between Alec and the pros in the shadowy world of espionage, it would appear Alec is destined to again get the short end of the stick....

These days so many books are derivatives of 007-styled derring-do with gorgeous femme fatales, ingenious egomaniacal world-crushers, and gadgets gadgets gadgets. Not many delve into the psyche games associated with becoming a spy, how words can be used just as effectively as bullets or torture. In this book, Alec Milius tries out for the British SIS but is rejected. As a consolation prize, he is recruited to work for a British oil company as a corporate spy with the caveat that after 4 or 5 years he can move up to either MI-5 or 6. Being a corporate spy, however, isn't about glamorous locations and caviar and gadgets, Alec discovers. It's about secrecy, spinning webs of deceit, isolating oneself from friends, family, and society in general. And most of all, it's about not getting caught. Charles Cumming makes has Alec do the heavy lifting, giving us a blow-by-blow narrative of the process, which I can't help but feel makes this terrific novel an autobiography of sorts, given that Cumming was recruited by Five back in the day, and worked for them for several years.
The book is intriguing, and while it's certainly not for the action-junkie, it certainly is for the reader who wants to know what goes on in a spy's head, and how they dance when the time comes to do their job. A great insight into the psychological aspect of intelligence and counter-intelligence that is not to be missed.

Unlike the regular spy thriller, A "Spy by Nature" is a unique novel into the mindset of a wannabe spy. Told from the first person perspective, the thoughts and emotions - as well as character cast of the ex-girlfriend, best friend, jerk boss, etc. - from loner Alec Milius are ones that many in the 20-something age bracket can relate to.. as well as the alluring curiosity for the clandestine. While far from your `Jason Bourne' type, Milius is an intriguing protagonist that makes him worthy of other engaging characters like le Carre's George Smiley. If the concept of the character of a spy intrigues you as much as, or more so than, the acts of being a spy then this is definitely a novel worth getting.

I also highly recommend "The Spanish Game" to anyone who enjoyed this novel and the character of Milius! Set in Spain, it marks the return of Alec and further explores the events from this novel to his psyche as well as placing him amidst a plot between the Basque nationalist organization ETA and the Spanish government.

This slow-burning spy tale may turn some readers off with its narrator's (author's?) too studied, self-conscious cleverness. And there is a fair amount of 20-something navel-gazing throughout. However, the quickly drawn, yet vivid characters and the ever mounting tension more than make up for any rookie errors. (I'd include the clumsy American patois in this number.) I'm certainly anxious to read any follow-ups, let alone see a big-screen take on this, as the book's reams of terrific dialogue and drawn-out dramatic scenes would seem to render its adaptation a no-brainer. (Paging Robert Pattinson...)

While I found the plot to be a little pedestrian and at times meandering, Cumming plumbs young would-be spy Alec Milius and his ilk with a precision and depth that earns four stars in and of itself.

Having endured some of the experiences that Cumming brings to vivid life (especially the early portions on recruitment, vetting and training for government intelligence/diplomatic agencies), I can attest to the uncanny way that Milius' first person narrative captures an experience that is simultaneously (paradoxically) surreal and mundane.

Paradox is a motif. Milius is torn between patriotism and nihilism. He struggles with the notion of "making it" by dropping out of sight. And, he contends with the one of the espionage genre's go-to themes: how does someone who lives a life of secrets contend with sharing, openness and relationships outside the context of his profession. None of that necessarily breaks new ground, but Cumming's experience in this arena shines through.

The angst reads with an authenticity and texture that compares favorably with masters of the genre like LeCarre and Greene. I look forward to reading his current release, Typhoon, to see if he has continued to develop toward writing one of those really excellent novels that can retain all of the value contained herein, while being able to let go enough (and remain comfortably artistic enough) to write a page-turner.

This is an excellent, intelligent and really fascinating modern spy thriller. What makes this such a great read is that unlike the carbon copy slick techno thrillers or special ops fantasies, Cumming has created a totally believable espionage tale that involves very human characters who are flawed. What holds this book together is that Cumming is an excellent writer - both for style and for plot. Spy By Nature straddles the spy thriller genre and the well-written serious novel. Very rewarding. Very much worth the investment in time.

With respect to the reviewers who did not enjoy the book, I think you're missing the point. A Spy By Nature is not a traditional 'spy novel' in the sense that it is not about action sequences, sex and subterfuge. It's a hyper-realistic, psychological study of what happens to a young man, Aec Milius, who becomes a spy. In this context, it is both highly original and - if you have the patience - very, very gripping.

You shouldn't buy it if you're expecting pure escapism. The book is written in the same tradition of 'serious' British spy novels as John le Carre, Eric Ambler and Len Deighton. If you want a 'faster' read, I would recommened The Spanish Game or Typhoon by the same author.

I agree the begining of the book was interesting about the testing procedure to get into MI6. But I was expecting more action. I found I really didn't care about Alec's past relationship and way to much time was spent on this. I also did not get a feeling of suspense and the end seemed rushed. I like the Author's writting style, but was not crazy about the story.

A Spy by Nature, Charles Cumming's first novel, is the semi-autobiographical precursor several subsequent espionage stories that have caught the attention of reviewers and the reading public alike. The Trinity Six, the most recent, was a deft and ingenious reimagining of the familiar story of the five aristocratic Cambridge graduates whose greatest fame came when they defected to the Soviet Union after many years of undercover work in Britain.

In A Spy by Nature, Cumming tells a version of his own story as a recruit to the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). His protagonist, Alec Milius, is a 24-year-old underperformer in London who devotes three months to testing and interviews preparatory to joining MI6, only to be rejected. The consolation prize is a job as a "support agent," a species of contractor, who is placed in a British oil company with the assignment to infiltrate its American competitor and feed it disinformation.

As Alec's story unfolds, he finds himself more and more deeply enmeshed in a web of distrust and betrayal that brings out the worst in him -- and generates tragic consequences. Cumming's portrayal of his alter ego is utterly convincing, and the story brings to light an increasingly important aspect of latter-day espionage in the post-Cold War Era: industrial espionage.

A Spy by Nature is an entirely worthy antecedent of Cumming's later, more fully realized spy stories.

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