Book Review: Argo

Source: Amazon.com

Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History, by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio

From the book’s cover:

The true account of a daring rescue that inspired the film ARGO, winner of the 2012 Academy Award for Best Picture

On November 4, 1979, Iranian militants stormed the American embassy in Tehran and captured dozens of American hostages, sparking a 444-day ordeal and a quake in global politics still reverberating today. But there is a little-known drama connected to the crisis: six Americans escaped. And a top-level CIA officer named Antonio Mendez devised an ingenious yet incredibly risky plan to rescue them before they were detected.

Disguising himself as a Hollywood producer, and supported by a cast of expert forgers, deep cover CIA operatives, foreign agents, and Hollywood special effects artists, Mendez traveled to Tehran under the guise of scouting locations for a fake science fiction film called Argo. While pretending to find the perfect film backdrops, Mendez and a colleague succeeded in contacting the escapees, and smuggling them out of Iran.

Antonio Mendez finally details the extraordinarily complex and dangerous operation he led more than three decades ago. A riveting story of secret identities and international intrigue, Argo is the gripping account of the history-making collusion between Hollywood and high-stakes espionage.

My review:

Great book.  Interesting how things were different than the movie.  For one, the lead character Mendez didn't go through the family troubles seen in the film (or at least the book doesn't mention them at all, that I noticed).  Also, the actual exfiltration of the "house guests" was much less thrilling and more pedestrian than shown in the film.  For one, there was no runway chase.  I admit, I wasn't terribly surprised that part didn't happen.  Also, the escape did not include many of the details from the film.  Like the bazaar part, or the explaining themselves to the Revolutionary Guard, or the calling Hollywood and having to wait til someone answered the phone and all that.

The author, Tony Mendez, at what I assume is the premier of the film based on his novel. / Source: nbclatino.com

However, the book had a lot of interesting info on the tradecraft involved, and numerous operations that Mendez was involved in.  The exfiltration of the former military official Mendez called "Raptor" was especially intriguing.

The book had much less obscenities than the film, with only one f-bomb I noticed the obligatory "Arr-Go-'F'-yourself" quote.  Of course, the acerbic "Exfiltrations are like Abortions" quote is also there.  And it is adult material overall.

The 1979 revolution in Iran caught many in the West flat-footed, as predictions of the Shah's stability were the prevalent way of thinking outside of Iran.  The popular uprising of so-called "fundamentalist" Islamic sentiment, headed primarily by cleric Ruhollah Khomeini, caused a major shift in U.S. policy in the Middle East at the time. / Source: Wikipedia.

If you liked the film, you may find the book a bit slow, but the information contained is really good, and the book isn't too long but packs a lot of valuable material.  I learned a lot, and would recommend this one thoroughly.

Learn more about Argo, by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio, on Amazon.com


The parting comment:

Source: LOLSnaps.com

Better than Hallmark, any day.