FINKS: HOW THE CIA TRICKED THE WORLD'S BEST WRITERS
My first book, Finks has been called "a revelation," (Arundhati Roy) "riveting" (Kirkus), "ingeniously researched..." (Pankaj Mishra, Guardian's Best of the Year Roundup), “a fascinating mix of political ... [and] literary history” (New York Times), “an essential book” (Los Angeles Review of Books) and “a powerful warning” (The New Republic). The book received truly humbling endorsements from director Boots Riley, journalists Dan Rather and Robert Scheer. But still, I was surprised when the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran recapped/praised Finks at a Journalists' Club press conference. With help from my publishers, I sample the book's coverage in the media below. Two recent novelists used Finks as part of their research, first Lara Prescott's The Secrets We Kept. The other below: Weaponising Culture, Helen Mercer, The Morning Star (UK), January 21, 2023 John Train, Paris Review Founder, & Cold War Operative, Dead at 94, Alex Traub, New York Times, Sept 23, 2022 The Cold War Boudoir: Bug, Wigs & Wiretaps, Caroline Woods, Crime Reads, June 9, 2022 Episode 144: Citations Needed Podcast, Sept 22, 2021 No, the CIA Didn't Invent Show-Don't-Tell, Lincoln Michel, Substack (Countercraft), July 21, 2021 The P Source, Elysa Graham, Princeton Alumni News, Dec 2020 CIA Book Publishing, David Price, Counterpunch, Sept 13, 2020 Who Really Infiltrates Peaceful Protests? Ted Snider, Antiwar.com, June 18, 2020 The US Has a Long History of Weaponizing Aid to Other Countries, Ted Snider, Truthout, May 2020 Autonomy's Compromise & the Professionalization of the Small Press, Matvei Yankelevich, Poetry Foundation, Feb 2020 Stranger Than Fiction, on various recent books about Doctor Zhivago, Chicago Public Library, September 2019 Radio interview with Doug Henwood, Behind the News (minute 26), KPFA/Jacobin Radio, July 11, 2019 Podcast interview with John Dolan & Mark Ames (preview), Radio War Nerd, March 21, 2019 Radio interview with Larry Bensky, Ideas & Ideals, KPFA-Berkeley, February 22, 2019 Radio/podcast interview with Doug Henwood, Behind the News (minute 26), KPFA/Jacobin Radio, February 21, 2019 The CIA Then & Now: Old Wine in New Bottles, Edward Curtin, Counterpunch, Feb 1, 2019 How the CIA Helped Shape the Creative Writing Scene in the United States, Josh Jones, Open Culture, Dec 14, 2018 (more, Uruguay) Two CIA Veterans Review Finks: Steve Slick, Member of CIA's Clandestine Services and Adviser to George W. Bush, calls Finks "A Lost Opportunity" (response here) in Lawfare, Sept 26, 2017; "70 Years of Disinformation: How the CIA Funded Opinion Magazines in Europe," Philip Giraldi in American Herald Tribune, January 15, 2018 "How the CIA Funded and Supported Literary Magazines Worldwide While Waging Cultural War Against Communism," Josh Jones in Open Culture, October 27, 2017 "The Deep State, Now and Then," Edward Curtin in Counterpunch, July 27, 2017 "How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers," a long, two-part interview with Patrick Lawrence in The Nation: part 1, May 31, 2017, & part 2, June 22, 2017) "When the Fourth Estate Collaborates with the State," Ronald Goldfarb in Washington Lawyer, June 2017 "Whistling for Robert Lowell, The CIA & Paris Review," William Maxwell in Times Literary Supplement (paywall), May 10, 2017 "Three digs into the CIA's dark side," Ben Terrall in January Magazine, May 8, 2017 I did a Book Notes playlist over at Largehearted Boy, April 28, 2017 "An enthralling account..." Siddhartha Deb in The Baffler, April 6, 2017 "The CIA and the Intellectuals… Again," by Paul Buhle in Counterpunch, March 24, 2017 "Scheer Intelligence: Robert Scheer interviews Joel Whitney," on KCRW/NPR LA, March 17, 2017 (more here) "Spycast: Author Debriefing: Finks," with Dr. Vince Houghton, International Spy Museum, March 7, 2017 "Finks is a revelatory book..." "Controlling the message," by Joseph Hnatiuk in Winnipeg Free Press, February 18, 2017 "A fascinating mix of political history, literary history..." "The Left Bank," by John Williams in The New York Times Book Review, February 10, 2017 "Book details CIA literary subterfuge," by Samantha Kinney in Point Reyes Light, February 9, 2017 "Don't Be Fooled by the Trump Spat - the CIA is Not Your Friend," by Branko Marcetic for In These Times, February 7, 2017 "Behind the News," with Doug Henwood on KPFA (minute 36:25), February 2, 2017 "To Spy or Not to Spy," by William Grabowsky in Library Journal, February 1, 2017 "Whitney on 'How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers'," by Bridey Heing in Paste Magazine, January 26, 2017 "Tinker Tailor Writer Spy," an interview with Darley Stewart in Electric Literature, January 24, 2017 "Finks explores how the CIA used writers to fight the Cold War," by John Semley in Globe & Mail (Canada), January 20, 2017 "State-sponsored content: Finks traces the CIA's history of propaganda in the arts," by Zane Schwartz in National Post (Canada), January 19, 2017 "How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers," interview on RT's Watching the Hawks, January 16, 2017 "Finks is a riveting account of the CIA's plot to recruit literature to America's cause," by Muhammad Idrees Amhad in The National (UAE), January 12, 2017 "Hijack: The CIA and Literary Culture," by Antony Loewenstein in Los Angeles Review of Books, January 8, 2017 "8 Great Books to Read This January," by Kristin Iversen in Nylon, January 7, 2017 "How the CIA Infiltrated the World's Literature," an interview with Mary Von Aue in Vice, January 4, 2017 "8 Books You Need to Read This January," Boris Kachka in Vulture, January 4, 2017 Finks excerpt in Paris Review roundup, Dan Piepenbring, here, January 4, 2017 "Literary Agents: Rethinking the legacy of writers who worked with the CIA," Patrick Iber in The New Republic, January 3, 2017 Finks excerpt in Atlantic magazine roundup, here, December 10, 2016 "Fidel Castro Edited Gabriel García Márquez’s Manuscripts," Sarah Seltzer in Flavorwire, December 7, 2016 (more) Pankaj Mishra calls Finks "ingeniously researched," in The Guardian's "Best Books of 2016," November 26, 2016 "If you are not familiar with the [Congress for Cultural Freedom], this would be a good way into the subject," writes Robin Ramsay in The Lobster (UK), Winter, 2016 Finks proceeds with "a le Carre-like pace," writes Richard Fern in Spinwatch (UK), November 15, 2016 Joel Whitney by Rob Spillman, an interview about Finks in BOMB Magazine, November 10, 2016 Kirkus Reviews gives Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World's Best Writers a Starred Review: "Lid-blowing account ... Riveting," Kirkus Reviews, September 8, 2016 "At the height of the cold war, the CIA set out to influence Americans by infiltrating our country’s literary and artistic establishment. Finks is a devastating work of investigative history that unearths the shocking reach of the Agency’s tentacles—from Baldwin and Hemingway to the Paris Review and the renown American Studies department at Yale. Today, when cultural and literary icons seem closer than ever to elite interests, Finks is a timely reckoning of how we got here. You will never look at American literary culture the same way again." —Anand Gopal, author of No Good Men Among the Living |