Literary Scene

Three Incredible Real-World Stories

By Ryan G. Van Cleave

Permanent Record
by Edward Snowden

Finally, we have Permanent Record, the much-awaited memoir by the most notorious whistleblower in recent memory—Edward Snowden. After all this time, this deeply-polarizing figure takes on the task of asking the questions we have for him. He’s guarded his personal space for six years, but in these pages, he finally shares the context for his 2013 decision to disclose confidential reports about mass surveillance and the bulk collection of personal information.

It comes as no surprise that Snowden was a supergeek who got hooked on his dad’s Commodore 64. And when the Internet was born, Snowden embraced it as fully as one could, from coding to hacking. What’s far more of a WOW is that he comes from a family of patriots. One grandfather served as a rear admiral. His father worked for the Coast Guard. His mother worked for the NSA. Snowden claims to have relatives serving in the military all the way back to the American Revolutionary War. For the Snowden family members to be so well-vetted by the government and yet end up with someone most consider a traitor in their midst? That’s a tough one to work through.

Snowden says his family always answered the call of duty, and he, too, tried to do so by joining the Army. He was so undersized that wearing a heavy backpack gave him stress fractures, and that injury caused him to wash out. The intelligence community didn’t care about physical limitations—especially when he had the type of digital world aptitude that soon had him working for the CIA and the NSA.

One aspect of Snowden’s life that isn’t deeply examined is his relationship to Lindsay Mills, the pole-dancing world traveler he finally married two years ago. Yes, we know he tried to shield her from the blowback of his actions by keeping his decision to go public a secret until it happened, but their relationship isn’t dealt with in much depth. Nor does he say much about Russia in these pages, though he has plenty to say in live interviews about it. Another minor disappointment in this book is that there are no bombshells here. It’s all about the past, though the issues related to Snowden’s choice to divulge that secret information continue to loom large in the world today.

Still, it’s rare to see someone give up their entire life at age 29 for what they see as the good of others. Ultimately, Snowden’s life is an incredible American story about a controversial figure that’s become a pop culture icon. For those reasons alone, Permanent Record is worth a look.

Rating: 4 out of 5
www.twitter.com/Snowden

Manhunters: How We Took Down Pablo Escobar
by Steve Murphy and Javier F. Peña

I’m zooming through the Netflix series Narcos right now, so when I learned that this explosive memoir of small-town cops who became legendary DEA agents was the basis for it, I had to check it out. The good news? The book didn’t let me down. Right from the start, it made good on the promise to reveal firsthand how Steve Murphy and Javier Peña helped the DEA chase down drug traffickers, with their white whale being the infamous Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar.

The story is told from both Murphy’s and Pena’s perspective, switching between them, as we get to see them in action early in their careers. Things really pick up when the duo gets to Bogotá, Colombia, which they said was like being in a war zone. Their stories give readers a ringside seat to the multi-country effort to bring down Escobar, the man at the center of the Medellín Cartel.

Steve Murphy and Javier Peña are the real deal. It’s sometimes hard to believe the accounts they share—though they ring with authenticity. What makes this book more than just a true crime story is how we see their friendship grow at the same time we see the sacrifices they—and their families—made during the years they spent chasing down the most-wanted man in recent US history.

This book is exciting, relevant, and well-written—a must-read for anyone interested in knowing the real story about America’s war on drugs. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5
www.facebook.com./DEAnarcos/

Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor
by Bruce Campbell (with Craig Sanborn)

Self-styled B movie actor Bruce Campbell is at it again, offering more “confessions” from his never-dull life in Hail to the Chin. Even if you’re not a Brucenik, it’s easy to like the funny, brutally honest stories he shares that are often accompanied by photos and images. Considering the legions of fans Bruce enjoys, it’s refreshing that he comes across as self-deprecating and likable. It also helps that he’s a gifted storyteller.

The book tackles the events since his 2001 memoir, If Chins Could Kill. A good bit of this book examines his life in Oregon, which he moved to with his wife for some quieter living—“to renew, regroup, and reload.” To his surprise, Oregon life ended up having a few too many encounters with wild animals (bears!) and wild people (country folk!). Who knew that Bruce used the wild lavender on his property to make soaps and sachets to give to the Teamsters on the TV set of “Burn Notice,” which he co-starred in for seven seasons?

But the book also gives us real behind-the-scenes insight into “Burn Notice,” his “pivotal” roles in the Spider-Man series, and his work teaming up with Sam Rami and Rob Tapert for a remake of The Evil Dead and then on the hit Starz TV show “Ash vs Evil Dead.” You also get his take on being able to check off playing dream roles: Santa Claus and Ronald Reagan.

One of my favorite anecdotes is how he was sent to Bulgaria to shoot a few SyFy network films. He shares his take on Bulgarian vodka and beer, and then talks about how he and his friend Josh got hooked on Kamenitza beer that was so “off-brand” that restaurants wouldn’t carry it. “After three of four of them we coined the ad slogan: ‘Kamenitza—it’s better than communism!’”

Bruce himself gives perhaps the best sales pitch on this book: “I never pictured myself hovering above Baghdad in a Black Hawk helicopter, facing a pack of wild dogs in Bulgaria, or playing an aging Elvis Presley with cancer on his penis—how can you predict this stuff? The sheer lunacy of show business is part of the fun for me and I hope you’ll come along for the ride.”

Hail to the Chin is a fun, breezy dive into the life of a cult hero who’s been in the limelight—and the media world—for four decades.

Rating: 4 out of 5
www.Bruce-Campbell.com