Into the Mirror CD : The Life of Master Spy Robert P. Hanssen

Rating:
Summary: ...an enlightening view of Hanssen
Review: "Into The Mirror" is the first work written by Lawrence Schiller that I've read. Naturally, I was extremely interested in reading about Robert P Hanssen's life. After all, who wouldn't wonder what kind of a childhood or life Hanssen had lived before/during that of a turncoat spy? When Hanssen's story first broke in the news media, and his position with the FBI that had allowed for his twenty years of spying, I was quite appalled. Who wasn't? Still, like every other American, I soon developed my own opinion. I thought Hanssen spied for the money. After reading Schiller's book, my first impression was right. With his back financially against the wall, Hanssen found an easy way out of his problem. Yet, I kept wondering how this man could sleep at night for twenty years, knowing what he had done. Not only had this traitor put the lives of every American in harm's way by divulging pertinent top-secret information to the Russians, but also the lives of his wife and six children. What a monster! There's no doubt in my mind that Hanssen has to be one very sick and mentally deranged individual. He endured a childhood that was a nightmare. An abusive father who openly flaunted his womanizing in front of his wife and Robert. No doubt, dressed in his policeman's uniform, Hanssen's father considered himself another King Kong. The things Hanssen's father did to him were incomprehensible and unforgettable. Yet Schiller showed in his research that Hanssen grew to manhood with a different outlook about life, marriage and raising children. The author is trying to convince his readers that Hanssen was unfaithful only once to his wife. That may be the case. Who oculd actually know for sure? But after reading the way Hanssen defiled Bonnie with his best friend, Jack, by showing Jack nude pictures of her and allowing Jack to observe what took place in the privacy of their bedroom...well, this is the part that proves Hanssen is mentally deranged. Perhaps he was trying to compare himself and his position to that of James Bond-Agent 007. The job put him above anyone or anything else. He too was another King Kong like his father, while toting his Walther PPK as an FBI agent. But instead of womanizing, which I would think he remembered his father here, he chose pornography. Everything Hanssen did in regard to sex was not normal. My only problem with this book was wondering if Schiller really did believe Hanssen's wife, Bonnie, was so gullible and naive. Surely he knows women better than that. If I found $10,000 in one of my husband's socks, I'd know something was going on. It's hard to beleive Hanssen succeeded for twenty years in giving his wife this kind of a snow job. Otherwise, I think Schiller has done a wonderful job in the research and portraying of Hanssen's life. I can't wait for the mini-series. I enjoy a book that keeps me wanting to turn the page. "Into The Mirrow" kept me turning its pages. I started reading and couldn't put the book down. I plan on recommending this book to my library book review group. And now, I'm going to the library and look for Schiller's book "American Tragedy".

Rating:
Summary: Revenge of the Nerds
Review: Into the Mirror is deceptively good. My early impression was negative. The choice of fictionalizing the tale was odd, in my opinion. The dialogue was stilted, nerdy, Father-Knows-Bestish. But as I persevered through the book, I finally understood what the author was doing--speaking as Hanssen spoke--and began to appreciate it. In the end, the story resonates strongly.

It's helpful to know what the book isn't before you read it. It is not a detailed analysis of the specific criminal activities of Robert P. Hanssen, master spy. You won't learn the nitty-gritty on what secrets were passed to whom and when. Instead, Into the Mirror is a glimpse into the psyche of Hanssen himself; how he grew up; how he thought; how he wound up as a spy.

Part of the frustration in reading the book was that fictional tales generally require a likeable central character. Hanssen is not, and Schiller--properly--makes no apparent attempt to make him so. Once the reader accepts the notion that the protagonist is a weird, perverted traitor with few redeeming qualities, the reading gets easier.

The fascinating aspect of the story is that the trail leading Hanssen to spy for the Soviets and Russians against the U.S. wasn't littered with the kind of political travesties one would expect. Hanssen wasn't the victim of capitalism gone bad, or Rodney Kingesque mistreatment. His parents weren't ultra-liberals, communists, anti-American, or even particularly political. His father, though overbearing and mildly abusive, was a big-city cop. Hanssen was a converted Catholic who appeared to love his country and excel at his job. He was just your average schlep with a money management problem. This led to his first sale of classified secrets for cash, which quickly led to a near-clinical compulsion to spy for the pure excitement of it.

Into the Mirror reveals a strange man with unquenchable and unsavory sexual tendencies (allowing his best friend to secretly watch him make love to Mrs. Hanssen), and a twisted value system that somehow allowed espionage (which he knew led to the deaths of several men) to coexist with Catholicism. Oddly, we see a man who, but for an errant fork in life's road, could have easily been a patriot and contributing FBI agent. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

Rating:
Summary: Quick moving, enlightening and masterful
Review: Into the Mirror moves at such a break-neck pace that this book should be arrested for breaking the literary speed limit. Some may (and do) quibble about the fact this is a docudrama -- a dramatization of a true, high profile news story -- but it is FUN, a can't-put-it-down read and highly enlightening.

I"ve read many books this year but I will say in all seriousness: this was one of the most enjoyable, compelling books I've read all year. The story centers on FBI Special Agent Robert Philip Hanssen, whose arrest on Feb 2001 on 15 counts of espionage pitchforked him into the headlines. I read many of the complicated, sometimes dry news reports -- but this book makes it REAL. So when I heard he was sentenced in May to life imprisonment I had a MUCH different reaction than I would have if I had not read this book.

The reason: when you hear about a spy case like this you wonder "how could he do this? He just wanted the money?" and it ends in puzzlement.

Schiller's book, based on many interviews done by Schiller and Norman Mailer, and using Mailer's mini-series screenplay as a guide, really brings the story alive. It's as dramatic as
watching a top flight film or mini-series and more instructive than all the news reports I read on this put together. How did Hanssen get from Point A (an innocent child) to Point
B (one of the most destructive spys in American history and only the third FBI agent ever accused of spying)? This book provides some of the answers.

There are a slew of revelations you'll find here that explain why. Just a few: constant abuse by his policeman father (lasting into adulthood); his almost sexual thrill at deception
and betrayal; the fun he had changing his grades in school; his betrayal of his wife, church, stated religious beliefs and best friend; his siphoning of gas out of FBI cars; his constant
problem with credit card debt and economic dependence on his gloating father. There are too many to go into here.

The book makes sense of the whole chronology (included in the back of the book) ...and in the end you feel you KNOW Hanssen. He's NOT sympathetic. You still feel outrage. But some puzzlement turns to pity. Hanssen was a master spy and Into the
Mirror is a master docudrama.

Rating:
Summary: Sins of the flesh?
Review: Schiller's conceit here is misguided. The mirror references are tired, and Hansen's overbearing father is a cliche rather than a character. While distilling Hansen's motives proves interesting at times, the dialouge reads as the male equivalent of a boddice ripper, though Lifetime TV would love it.

Rating:
Summary: A good book about a twisted, evil, man.
Review: When I read this account of the life of Robert Hanssen, I thought it was merely going to be an account of a disillusioned man, who was made a good offer by the Russians. As I read the account, and especially his personal, i.e., sexual predelictions, and especially with his wife, I thought: "What a sick, twisted, evil, individual this is." [I am being kind here.] I do not know who he betrayed worse-his family, particularly, his wife, or the U.S. Government. Both are almost equally reprehensible. His wife was either the most devoted, if naive, women, or the stupidest. The fact that she went along with some of his perverted, sick, diseased ideas (considering if she had known his further plans, i.e., having his friend "sleep" with her, she might have sought an annulment)in some ways, does not lend sympathy to her either (only for the children). To my mind, life terms were too good for this depraved man. Robert Hanssen should consider himself lucky that he is an American (though an insult to his country). Anywhere else, they'd have executed him. The including of a couple of his web stories bears this out. This guy is seriously disturbed. I am actually amazed this book got written. Having said all of this, I'd recommend it as an example of an examination of a person with too high a position, going bad, and having the consequences come back to rightfully give him what he deserves.