MixedThe Washington PostSnowden demonstrates a knack for explaining in lucid and compelling language the inner workings of these systems and the menace he came to believe they posed ... But the consuming concern for personal privacy that he says compelled his leak works against him as the author of a memoir. He revealed some of the U.S. government’s most closely guarded intelligence programs, but he withholds from readers any truly revealing material about his own life. As a result, Permanent Record is a book that mostly skims the surface of Snowden’s relatively familiar life story. It becomes more energetic when he expounds on the architecture of sprawling computer systems that hoover up our personal data and the perils they pose to humanity ... One of this book’s greatest flaws is that it gives us almost no meaningful insight into that life of perpetual exile ... what is that existence really like? Does he have regrets? To what extent has he pursued a possible return to the United States? And most important, how has he adapted to life in a nation known for the sort of repressive surveillance that he feared was encroaching on his own country? The speaker of truth doesn’t answer.
Andrew G McCabe
MixedThe Washington PostA startling portrait that suggests that the Trump administration’s reputation for baseness and dysfunction has, if anything, been understated and too narrowly attributed to the president ... insightful and occasionally provocative ... overall, the book isn’t the comprehensive account McCabe was presumably capable of delivering. He seems reluctant to reveal details about his role in conflicts at key moments, rarely shedding meaningful new light on areas of the Trump-Russia-FBI timeline established by Mueller, news organizations and previous authors ... McCabe is a keen observer of detail, particularly when it comes to the president’s pettiness ... One of the most frustrating aspects of The Threat is that it steers around scenes where McCabe might have provided more detail or insight.
