Book review: “The volunteer” by Michael Ross
March 4th, 2008 at 8:52 pmFull book name: “The volunteer: a Canadian’s secret life in the Mossad”
This is an autobiography of Michael Ross (agent code name ‘Rick’) that was serving in the Mossad (Israeli secret intelligence agency, the parallel of CIA) for nearly 20 years, from the mid-80s to shortly after 9-11. Ross manned some key roles during this time - he was an undercover field agent in Europe, worked in the unit that connects Mossad with the CIA and FBI, and later returned to field work, recruiting collaborators in Africa and South-East Asia.
In this book he tells the story of his service from the first steps (interviews, training) and until retirement. The writing is very direct and to-the-point, with varying quality throughout the book. The author emphasizes the lack of glamor in the life of a covert field agent, and tries to shatter all the James Bond spy images promoted in the movies and other books. His story-telling is no-thrills, personal and honest.
The book has interesting details on some of Mossad’s operations and their general techniques, although the authors assures the reader at several occasions that he didn’t write anything that could harm the Mossad in any way, and that all the information he disclosed is not considered confidential.
Ross uses the stage to share his political views with the readers. These views are quite mainstream right-wing in Israel, with some added credibility because as a secret agent with access to a lot of information unknown to the general public, the author has a unique point of view on the geo-political situation in the world and in particular in Israel in the beginning of the 21st century.
Related posts:
March 5th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Funny, some of your reviews on books are very warm although you did not really like the book, and some of your reviews are so parve that I would assume that you really disliked the book.