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Goodbye Mexico
Intelligence Failure
Two words now joined at the hip. Remember when our alphabet agencies - CIA, DIA, NSA, FBI - were actually competent? Are you sure? Maybe they were just better at burying their mistakes. . . .
Our spooks have been playing games with other governments for half a century. Allies and enemies alike have gotten tired of our grubby fingerprints all over their national interests. Gearheardt's answer? Be sure to wear gloves!
Gearheardt - apparently back from the dead, or maybe Laos - wants to play for all the Mexican marbles, and he insists he needs Jack's help to do it. Just like the last time in Vietnam, he claims to be working for "the Company."
Jack really is in the CIA now, temporarily running the Mexico City station at the embassy, and ought to know better, but Gearheardt's sexy assistant with the disdain for clothes is so darn cute and Gearheardt's insane resolve is just so darn convincing. (Even though it's true that the last time around they failed spectacularly in their attempt to get Ho Chi Minh to retire to Hawaii, and then they didn't even shoot him either.) But does the Agency really want the Cubans to take over Mexico?
The worlds of espionage and subversion are as unpredictable and absurd as any other form of warfare. Working in the tradition of Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana and his own Nam-A-Rama , Phillip Jennings gives Goodbye Mexico riotous relevance with a clear-eyed look at how the right hand of our intelligence establishment often doesn't know what the left hand is doing. The result is laughter too loud to be covert and the haunting suspicion that truth may be stranger than fiction.
If you thought the Vietnam War of Nam-A-Rama was crazy, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Say hello to Goodbye Mexico and the CIA and our foreign policy will never look the same again.
Two words now joined at the hip. Remember when our alphabet agencies - CIA, DIA, NSA, FBI - were actually competent? Are you sure? Maybe they were just better at burying their mistakes. . . .
Our spooks have been playing games with other governments for half a century. Allies and enemies alike have gotten tired of our grubby fingerprints all over their national interests. Gearheardt's answer? Be sure to wear gloves!
Gearheardt - apparently back from the dead, or maybe Laos - wants to play for all the Mexican marbles, and he insists he needs Jack's help to do it. Just like the last time in Vietnam, he claims to be working for "the Company."
Jack really is in the CIA now, temporarily running the Mexico City station at the embassy, and ought to know better, but Gearheardt's sexy assistant with the disdain for clothes is so darn cute and Gearheardt's insane resolve is just so darn convincing. (Even though it's true that the last time around they failed spectacularly in their attempt to get Ho Chi Minh to retire to Hawaii, and then they didn't even shoot him either.) But does the Agency really want the Cubans to take over Mexico?
The worlds of espionage and subversion are as unpredictable and absurd as any other form of warfare. Working in the tradition of Graham Greene's Our Man in Havana and his own Nam-A-Rama , Phillip Jennings gives Goodbye Mexico riotous relevance with a clear-eyed look at how the right hand of our intelligence establishment often doesn't know what the left hand is doing. The result is laughter too loud to be covert and the haunting suspicion that truth may be stranger than fiction.
If you thought the Vietnam War of Nam-A-Rama was crazy, you ain't seen nothin' yet. Say hello to Goodbye Mexico and the CIA and our foreign policy will never look the same again.
- GenresFiction
348 pages, Hardcover
First published April 17, 2007
3 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 25, 2009
As is typical for me, I started out on Phillip Jennings’ work bass-ackwards and read Goodbye Mexico (a sequel) first. Even without having read Jennings’ highly praised first book, Nam-a-Rama, I greatly enjoyed Goodbye Mexico. With loads of action, bizarre characters, twists and double-crosses, and a healthy dose of tasteless humor, you can’t go wrong. Goodbye Mexico was consistently entertaining, confusing (but I think that was the point), and humorous. I look forward to reading more of Jennings’ work.
September 4, 2007
Second in my I-didn't-know-it-was-a-sequel series, but first in my heart.
I'm anxious to pick up Nam-A-Rama and see if it leaves me as confused and amused as this one. I don't think I kept the plot straight for more than a page or two, what with all of the double-crossing, who's spying for/sleeping with/working for who drama. But it didn't matter. This is espionage as satire done well.
I'm anxious to pick up Nam-A-Rama and see if it leaves me as confused and amused as this one. I don't think I kept the plot straight for more than a page or two, what with all of the double-crossing, who's spying for/sleeping with/working for who drama. But it didn't matter. This is espionage as satire done well.
September 29, 2007
I wrote it.
November 7, 2018
A review of this book that I saw before reading it described it as wildly humerous. I found the book to be just silly, farcial and made up almost entirely of juvenile humour. Perhaps the author thought he was creating a comedic gem but he ended up with an immature waste of time.
April 20, 2019
The sarcasms are good but the story plot is silly and too confusing.
December 29, 2008
another great book from jennings. a super read. lots of fun. awaiting more books from him. def recommend. i have seen some of the reviews for this book and to tell you the truth, i wasn't trying to find a lot of symbolism or analogies or anything, i just loved the characters, the story and writing style. guess i am a little thick...
December 22, 2007
Sarcasm at its best.
April 28, 2010
Pretty funny and sarcastic.
July 31, 2010
I am fond of his light style, not so fond of the way it meanders.
May 28, 2013
3.5 stars. this book was wild...just not quite up my alley.
September 14, 2007
Very funny and amusing.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews