It's not a bad read for what it is. Some portions of it didn't seem relevant to the plot, i.e. the M. Butterfly digression.

It's a very timely book especially as China is becoming more powerful and how its relationship with the US affects our policy, both political and economic. ( )

Not a bad read, but definitely could have benefited from some further editing. I love a good spy novel, so I was hoping for good things from this nonfiction book. It is meticulously researched, but a little dry and confusing in bits. A+ for effort, but a C for style. ( )

If there's one thing The Spy Within convinced me of, it's that Tod Hoffman can write.

The prose in this book was a joy to read; Hoffman has an excellent command of the English language, and if he wrote fiction, I'd be all over it. There were turns of phrase that were pure poetry, as well as elegantly executed figures of speech that enhanced the full work. At times, Hoffman's expertise with language was all I needed to carry me along.

Unfortunately, the narrative falls down in a few different ways. Hoffman takes the reader on a number of side trips into the world of espionage, presumably to provide a more complete background for the Larry Chin case. These side trips, however, come packed with extraneous information, and names and dates are thrown out so rapid fire that more than once I found myself backtracking just to try to pick up and follow all the different connections; I seriously considered sketching out relationship/family trees to keep everything straight in my head, but found that with the exception of the section on the Bernard Boursicot case -- which happens to be the basis for the play (and subsequent movie) M. Butterfly -- I didn't care enough about the intricacies of these secondary relationships to follow through. At one point, I found myself backtracking to the beginning of the book to find information that would explain the identity of someone Hoffman had suddenly dropped into the narrative, and not able to find that information, I simply gave up, certain that this unidentified person would drift out of the novel soon enough to no great loss. I wasn't wrong.

The fact is, unlike a fictional novel, real life is messy, and it is no doubt difficult for a non-fiction writer to sculpt real world happenings into some sort of linear form, but that is, indeed, the task set before Hoffman, and instead of separating the wheat from the chaff and providing a streamlined, coherent version of the Larry Chin case, the narrative meanders down a myriad of winding paths before returning to the main thrust. At times I had to wonder if Hoffman was finding himself too caught up in accurately representing the tiniest of details, no matter how small and tangential, to the point where he was unable to untangle himself from them, or if there simply wasn't enough substance to Larry Chin's duplicity to carry the reader through a full novel.

Hoffman also has the tendency to editorialize. This tendency is a bit offputting, as so much of the book is consumed with minute details which are then swept away in swathes of narrative in which he presumes that so-and-so felt this, and so-and-so thought that, but provides no real proof to back up these claims. Given how well-researched and footnoted the rest of the book is, this is a startling disruption of tone that repeats itself over and over again. The narrative would have benefited from Hoffman making a choice: is this a dramatization of a real event, or an accurate record of the Chin case?

Regardless, those things are forgivable sins, especially as the novel unfailingly returns to Chin each time the reader's attention threatens to waver. What I found actively distressing, however, was Hoffman's inability to write about the handful of women involved outside of a sexual context. This is, of course, a book written with a male audience in mind, and I did not expect anything less; I read and enjoy plenty of stories that are aimed at an audience I am not part of, and often enjoy them much more than those written for my particular demographic. The fact that The Spy Within is aimed at a male audience and the major players involved are male does not excuse using women's sexuality as shorthand for their personalities. Female agents, when described at all, are talked about in terms of appearance; a stark contrast to the deeper sketches of the hard-working, intelligent male agents involved (who come complete with quirks, faults and strengths). One of the few named females occupying a position of authority is defined in terms of her unwillingness to sleep with and become mistress to the man who outed Chin, rather than any characteristics that would be far more relevant to her job. More shocking still, Hoffman writes off a girl Chin assaults with something suspiciously approaching the old "she was asking for it" chestnut through some truly disturbing editorializing of her thoughts and feelings. Even Shi Pei Pu, Bernard Boursicot's lover, is treated in a similar manner, presumably because his queerness and gender-slippage marks him as effeminate, and therefore an exotic sexual figure. Hoffman would do well to examine his thumbnail sketches of women and look beyond titillation or definition-by-genitalia in future works. While I'm sure many readers will not find the faint whiff of sexism that pervades this novel terribly bothersome, it became quite a struggle to get past each new entrance of someone's wife or mistress, who would no doubt be described in relation to whether or not she's sexually attractive to men, and then just as quickly dropped from the narrative again.

The Spy Within left me envious of Hoffman's writing skills, but overall, it lacked a coherency of plot and respect for many of the characters inside. I would love to see him write something in the spy novel genre, completely fictionalized, but I fear he'd find himself bound up in gender issues should he attempt to include any women at all. While the Larry Chin case is an interesting one, I'm not sure Hoffman provided the sort of narrative that carries readers through from cover to cover, and I suspect those who would enjoy this book best are those already well-steeped in the history of espionage. As much as I enjoy a good spy novel, I can't count myself amongst that number. ( )

Tod Hoffman’s new book, The Spy Within: Larry Chin and China’s Penetration of the CIA is a thorough look at the story of Larry Chin and his lifelong decision to spy on the United States and pass the information he found back to the People’s Republic of China. Mr. Hoffman has certainly done his research. This book lists extensive footnotes, many interviews done by Mr. Hoffman with persons involved in the case and a exhaustive bibliography. However, I found the reading of this book to be quite dry and often too wordy. In addition, the story within is long on speculation and short on new information. That said, if you are looking for a resource of the FBI’s case against Larry Chin, you will find it here. All in all this is a good book that is recommended for readers interested in the tale of Larry Chin. I rate this booko 7 out of 10 stars. ( )

I debated about whether to give this book a 4 star for the information and subject matter and a 3 star for the book's organization and writing. I agree with the other reviewers that the author is inconsistent when he shifts from a non-fiction factual style to a novelistic style of writing. The author certainly has good credentials for writing this book. He has worked in the intelligence field. I hoped that his being Canadian would give a outside party point of view as to why this deep penetration of our CIA went on for so long.
I particularly appreciated the author's addition of information to set the historical background of the Chinese Civil War, Korean War, Cultural Revolution, and Nixon's visit to China. I felt he was weak in explaining China's role in the Vietnam War and Sino-Soviet relations during the Cold War. The author seems to jump to conclusions about reliance on Mr. Chin's spy activities to Chinese top leaders. I especially saw this lacking during the explanation of Chin's role during the Korean War.
Although I find the information about spycraft and the recruitment of spys fascinating, I particularly wanted to find out what motivated Chin to be a spy in the first place. The author, Tod Hoffman, does a good job in the comparison and contrast of Oriental and Western European motivations and values. At the beginning of the book Hoffman briefly describes Chin's ultimate vulnerability, his children. But, there is probably not even a paragraph's worth of information about them for the rest of the book. I am fascinated with someone like Chin who does not seem to be very ideologically motivated and who has been exposed to advantages of living in the USA and yet continues to spy on behalf of the PRC. He is a much more complex person than seen in this book or he is a person who only craves money and recognition.
The book ends with an extensive bibliography and endnotes. In particular, I referred to the endnotes numerous times while reading to find out the source of matters claimed to be fact. The conspiracy allegations in the final chapter left me curious for more information. I plan on trying to locate a copy of Mrs. Chin's book.
(This further comment was added after the above review was written). I attempted to locate a copy of Cathy Chin's book [Death of My Husband], but I was unable to locate it through either my local library or Amazon.com. I am rather curious about this book since Mrs. Chin alleges in the Abatement court documents that she did not speak/read/write English very well and was dependent upon her husband. ( )