The Company We Keep: A Husband-and-Wife True-Life Spy Story

The Company We Keep by Robert and Dayna Baer is not your usual book about the CIA. There is little policy analysis or debate about the CIA's role in a free society. It is the story of Dayna and Robert who, as CIA operatives, met and fell in love. Robert was already a senior operative when Dayna joined the CIA, so despite the subtitle "a husband and wife true life spy story" Robert and Dayna were not, for the most part, Mr. and Mrs. James Bond.Most chapters begin with a quote for a newspaper or government publication. These quotes help put the narrative in historical context. Without such introduction, the storyline would have been very haphazard. Even with these introductions, the storyline jumps a great deal. In most books, this would have been a fatal flaw, but neglecting to lead one chapter into the next, is not a critical short-coming in this work.Also at the beginning of each chapter is a notation whether the chapter is authored by Robert or Dayna. The reader is advised to play close attention to whether Robert or Dayna is writing. Until halfway through the book, this reviewer did not. This lead to confusion, as the chapters do not always alternate between husband and wife.Unlike the fictional James Bond, Robert and Dayna have family. He has children from a prior marriage. She has parents who missed their daughter as she traveled about the globe. Incidentally, Dayna shared some observations about her father that, if I had been her, I would have not made public.More than anything else, The Company We Keep shows what a strain being a CIA operative puts on marriage and family. (Robert and Dayna's marriage survived because they decided to leave the CIA). It also shows how female operatives need to expect, and be comfortable with, spending extended periods of time, often in close quarters, with their male co-workers.When I bought The Company We Keep, I was expecting more cloak and dagger, and less of Robert and I got an apartment in Beirut and then we moved to Colorado, etc. While unexpected, there is a happy family ending that is a wonderful story in itself.While the human interest angle is important, the actual spying takes up no more than a third of the book. Therefore, the most I can give The Company is a slightly generous four star rating.

I enjoyed seeing the personalities within the stories. I realize that as operatives, there are limitations to the amount of details. I enjoyed reading about some of the places and perspectives.

What is 'espionage fiction'? I was impressed with the honesty implied in their writing and the inclusion of a personal journey and event thoroughly enjoyed.

This was more of a love story than a "spy story." It was easy to read---and sometimes a little boring while the two were "spying on a targeted house of the enemy." However, I never put a book down until I have read it from "Introduction" to the last page of an "epilogue." After "digesting" the story, I found myself looking for other books by Robert Baer. Yesterday, SEE NO EVIL arrived in the mail and I immediately plunged into the reading of the book. I saw the movie but always find the books more interesting than the films-----and this one is not disappointing me at all.

Greatly differing from a spy novel, The Company We Keep reveals true to life descriptions of daily life as a CIA operative in the Middle East, some of which was unremarkable, some of which was exciting. The main characters in the book could be good friends of people on the other side of battles and politics but remain loyal to their own country. Most of us will never experience what these people have gone through, but we can respect them for their commendable bravery and steadfast spirit. This book is an interesting story of lives very different from ours.

If you want to know how vicious government can be to people who tell the real story, this is a must-read. You will learn how the Dubya administration treated these people, who were astonishingly honest and clear-minded while titanic forces around them sought to destroy them. Government hates the harsh light of truth and becomes savage when exposed. The CIA actually "burned" one of their own agents - Baer's wife - seeking revenge for his telling the truth about the Dubya Bush adminstration and their wrong-headed Iraq policy. The whole war story was a pack of lies from top to bottom. READ IT.

The concept of this book is clever, and the execution is top-notch. Two former (?) spies share aspects of stories that they've been cleared to share... or is all the redacted stuff just a sales technique? It's impossible to say, but I have read all of Robert Baer's books and always get a kick out of them. This one is no exception. If you have an interest in the world of spycraft, this book offers a neat look behind the scenes of the CIA.

I find anything about the clandestine arena to be interesting. What I particularly like about this book is that it demonstrates how the life of an agent can run the gamut from soul-crushing boredom to heart-in-the-throat intrigue; almost always under less than glamorous circumstances. I had read reviews that expressed some disappointment with the stories being disjointed, and that heads-up let me enjoy it without the expectation of a story line. The two alternate narratives from their respective experiences and perspectives, so its being disjointed makes some sense. The last few chapters do carry a common thread that follows through to the (happy) end.

Some parts of the book are interesting, but most parts are not. The chapters written by mama Baer can be skipped altogether. Still lots of chapters by papa Baer are also not worth reading.It seems they were struggling whether to write a love story or a spy story. In the end it became neither.

Stories are interesting although sometimes it would have been to elaborate more on some of the stories. Nice and entertaining read.

Was expecting more. But nonetheless worth a skim through if you have no other books to read.

Informative, readable, witty. Gives a detailed view in the life of an agent: facts, thoughts, feelings. A highly recommended book.

Unlike a lot of the reviews elsewhere, I think that this was a good, frank accounting of two people caught up in in something like flying; hours and hours of boredom punctuated by moments of stark terror. I have not read Baer's other books so I can't compare the writing as some have done. But I can't help thinking that intelligence work such as in the covert section of the CIA must be just as described, apart from the fact that details of certain operations can never be revealed for obvious reasons: method, contacts, - and yes, failures and embarrassments.From the start I thought that it was obvious that Daya's first marriage was going nowhere and her answering the CIA ad was an act of avoidance if not desperation. As for Bob, I find it hard how a man could maintain a sense of family life in the roles he played and the absences. It is no wonder his marriage went sour as well. While I was touched by their experience adopting a Pakistan Christian infant, to me this seems to be in the same fractured world as their work life - not something most people would do. But all in all, I thought the book was a frank account of two people with strange needs who found the solution in each other. Well heck, it's a story about two real people in real situations, not a spy novel.