Lauren Wilkinson’s debut novel, “American Spy,” moves at the pace of a seasoned writer. The story details are revealedin a well-structured plot through flashbacks, and the story is told in the challenging second person narrative. Wilkinson’s protagonist, Marie Mitchell, is writing in a journal to her twin sons who she is forced to abandon.
Marie writes to her sons about a complicated espionage entanglement that takes her from Harlem, to West Africa, and finally to Martinique. She tells her boys of deceit involving America’s CIA on a world stage. From their mother’s journaled words, the boys learn of America’s manipulation of African governments, and of their mother’s personal involvement in the deceit and manipulation which leads to their father’s death.
If Marie does not survive the complicated espionage entanglement, it is her hope that the journal will offer her sons some explanation for her abandonment. Marie writes of a strained relationship between her and her mother, and the strain is largely due to abandonment. She tells the boys she does not want this strain between them. She writes, “I’ve always promised myself that I would avoid her mistake with my own children. That I would never leave you, no matter what.” But her espionage involvement forces her to abandon them. And leaving her children is not the only conflict that occurs with being an American spy.
In the journal, Marie writes of her father, a decorated police officer who advances in law enforcement, and she writes of a male family friend, Mr. Ali, who works for the FBI. Both of these men are major influences on Marie and her beloved older sister, Helen. As young girls, they see these two men as above others: they appear on television, they win awards, and they provide well for their families. The girls’ admiration of the men sparks an interest in law enforcement. Helen’s law enforcement interest develops first; she wants to be a spy, like Mr. Ali. She enlists in the military with her goal in mind. Helen reaches her goal, and her involvement in military intelligence is what pulls Marie into American espionage.
Marie and Helen become patriots more through osmosis than ideology. This point is consistent throughout the journal, with Marie keeping the conflict of working for an oppressive government a reoccurring topic in the journal. She is never blind to her country’s history or world policy, and this conflict eventually wears at her, “I couldn’t enforce their laws anymore without questioning who they’d been designed to serve.”
Through the journal, Marie shares her unjust experiences of working for government intelligence agencies: clearly speaking to the objectification of female agents, the punitive nature of agencies acting against those who don’t comply to the status quo, America’s backing of inhumane policies and greedy governments for global military advantage, and the country’s reduction of murder to standard operating procedure. Marie ends the journal with telling her sons that good Americans exist, and they should strive to become them. She defines good Americans as people who resist injustice.
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