A G-Man's Life: The FBI, Being 'Deep Throat,' And the Struggle for Honor in Washington

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

WATERGATE'S REAL HERO, 2008-08-08
br /Stuck in the middle of possibly the greatest scandal in the history of the government's Executive Branch, Mark Felt was more responsible for the destruction of the Watergate/White House cover-up than any other person in Washington. This book gives a great account of Felt's illustrious FBI career and clarify's his motives behind the secret meetings with Bob Woodward of the Washington Post. This is a "must-read" for everyone who was sruck by the Watergate mystique!!!

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Questions abound., 2008-01-29
I have given a three as it seems that the book we all clamour for is like "Deep Throat" himself was. br /A secret hidden away brilliantly. br /The same will apply to the book as Felt ages and unfortunately already is a man who is quite sick,with poor memory etc. br /I believe that the family should come first and that the realisation that Mark Felt cannot tell the story as many would like it should also be respected, br /As for one comment about this being the "last of the Watergate books then". br /Nothing could be further from the truth,the American public and their unquenchable thirst for scandal and hearing scandal at such a level is something that will always grow no matter how strange and wild the premise of future books where there is literary gold you have to mine it until it collapses in on itself and then pick through the rubble again. br /Ian.

0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

William Mark Felt, retired associate director of the FBI, revealed his true identity as Deep Throat, 2007-12-04
In 2005 after nearly 33 years of secrecy, William Mark Felt, retired associate director of the FBI, revealed his true identity as Deep Throat, the secret source behind the Watergate case's public exposure - and in A G-Man's Life, Felt tells his own story of how the Watergate case grew to create personal challenges, isolation, and the dilemma of whether his duty as an FBI official superseded his duty to expose the truth. Both college-level collections strong in social and political American history and general-interest libraries strong in true crime and autobiography will find this an absorbing discussion. br / br /Diane C. Donovan br /California Bookwatch br /

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

The Last Watergate Book?, 2006-07-05
I've been a student of Watergate for years. Maybe in part because I was born in October 1973, and I enjoy asking people who was Vice President the day I was born (answer: no-one). Maybe also in part because ten years ago I picked up "The Haldeman Diaries" off the remainder rack at Barnes Noble, and then started collecting all the Watergate autobiographies still in print (yes, that includes your own, Jeb Stuart Magruder). br / br /I never really had an intelligent guess as to who Deep Throat actually was. When Mark Felt's name was released by his family last year, I finally understood why -- he's only a tangential part of the books I read, not mentioned by name in the Woodward/Bernstein books, not mentioned even in "The Haldeman Diaries" or the Oliver Stone "Nixon" movie, both of which fixated on J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson, Felt's immediate FBI superiors. br / br /When I purchased "A G-Man's Life", I thought I'd bought my last Watergate book. I was wrong. This book necessarily leaves lots of questions unanswered, primarily because Felt is now essentially senile and then, according to my reading of co-author John O'Connor's portions of the back, he took no active role in the writing. "G-Man" is drawn mostly from Felt's long-forgotten FBI memoir, and supplemented by unpublished writings and interviews with family members (who learned Felt's secret only at the same time as did family friend O'Connor). br / br /Oddly, even the unpublished writings do not acknowledge that Felt was Deep Throat (hence the odd parsing of his phrase last year, "I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat"). O'Connor does explain this gap in two different ways: first, he points out where Felt didn't identify with the Deep Throat character portrayed in the movie; and second, he prints his speculation that Woodward's Deep Throat was a composite of which Felt was only a part. That speculation, however, is not echoed in Woodward's own "Secret Man", a book about Felt written before the public announcement. br / br /Felt's own writing, about his rise through the FBI ranks, well reflects the fatigue of hard work with the rewards of a job well done. This is a more than adequate crime memoir, with lots of decent anecdotes along the way. The FBI is not publicly regarded the way it used to be, so "A G-Man's Life" is not only an effective period piece, but a reminder of what good a governmental organization can achieve when motivated solely by the public interest. br / br /The toll that Felt's career took on his own family is mentioned not at all in the memoir chapters-- that is left to O'Connor to describe in the epilogue. O'Connor, whose daughter went to college with Felt's grandson, has become a family friend and is thus in the best position to write objectively about these struggles. Where Felt's own writing also seems naive in retrospect is his celebration of Hoover the man -- there are tens of thousands of pages of well-documented books offering contrary evidence -- and also in his take on the New Left, the obsession that ultimately brought down his FBI career. Whether the New Left was a Communist-infiltrated organization that actively conspired with foreign governments to overthrow the United States is not a question answered by Felt, although he does try. br / br /The aftermath of Felt's authorization of "black bag jobs" against the Weather Underground resulted in his conviction in federal court -- after a trial in which Richard Nixon testified in his favor. Felt's principled refusal to come forward as Deep Throat in the midst of his trial postponed his receiving the accolades he so richly deserved. The question remains... was Felt's three decades of secrecy worth the wait?

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

Glad Book was Written before Felt's Death - However, Wish it Could have Been Written While His Memory Was More Intact, 2006-07-04
This book gave me a much better understanding of Watergate and what went on behind the scenes. Gave me a greater respect for the FBI - but I doubt that it is now what it was then. br / br /This book did not sugar coat Felt. He devoted his life to the FBI at the expense of neglecting his wife and children. However, he had such a drive and tenacity to fulfill his dream that his wife would most likely not have been happy with a husband who doted on her and gave up his dream. His life was full and meaningful - he truly got to live his dream. br / br /The book gives the facts and leaves one wondering if some of the things Felt done were truly out of concern and his desire for justice to prevail; or if he was acting out of disappointment because he didn't get the position he so wanted. It was always passed on to someone else who was certainly not deserving or capable - a political choice to promote the promoter. Of course, this would be a debatable subject. I come to the conclusion though that Felt was hurt and disappointed, but that he was a man of honor and did what he felt must be done to stop the corruption and protect the people. br / br /This book portrays an excellent picture of the great FBI leader, J Edgar Hoover. In fact, I received as much insight and knowledge about Hoover as I ddi about Felt and that was sort of an extra. We see that Hoover was like Felt, totally dedicated to his career and demanded the same from his agents. br / br /I feel the information in this book is something that can be relied on coming from someone like Felt. I don't believe he would lie about anything that was in this book. br / br /The things revealed about Martin Luther King, Jr. were important to me. We have heard many rumours, but considering the great opposition Dr. King went though, one always wonders if there is any truth. However, I feel now that Dr. King certainly did have sexual weaknesses that we have heard about and he did associate with the communist leaders. However, the book portrays it in an open way. Just because he was friends with them does not mean he was for the communist movement. Through reading this book, I feel he was searching for a better way of life for his people; the socialistic way is so appealing because it claims to make the common people equal. It lures and gives a false hope. This makes me even more appreciate America, though not perfect, we still have hope. But oh how we need good leadership to make it possible. br / br /This book really makes you stop and think about some impportant issues of that time and of our time now. An eye opener if you read between the lines. br / br /I think this book portrays Mr. Felt as unbiased, he was concerned about all people, justice for all. He tried to be fair and compassionate as portrayed early on in the book where he let the guilty wife stay with her small children as he took the husband in for robbery. This is really an insight to his inner character and I think this stayed with him through his career and life. br / br /I think the book could have flowed a little better, at times it was hard to follow. But perhaps covering so much diversity, this was the only way. I still give it a 5, a good read.