Victor in the Jungle. Alex Finley. Smiling Hippo Press, 2019.
Victor Caro is back in the field. Readers who enjoyed Victor in the Rubble, a skewering of the constipated cultures of the CIA and al-Qaeda by former CIA Operations Officer Alex Finley, will be pleased to find she hasn't lost a step in her second outing. In Victor in the Jungle, Finley brings back her literary hero, CIA (sorry “CYA”) Officer Victor Caro, for another tour of duty, this time joined by his wife and son.
In the first novel, Victor had to not only fight global terrorism, but his own agency's bureaucracy, a corrupt senator, and a maniacal support officer who fought tirelessly to deny him a chair with proper lumbar support. Victor, posted in the fictional African nation of Pigallo, faced off with terrorist Omar al-Suqqit. Omar, whose local terrorist group was acquired by terrorist multinational The Core (once Omar filled out the online application form), traveled to Core HQ in Rubblestan, and was assigned to a terrorist operation in America. Victor was able to defeat the terrorist's plan with the help of FBI agent Vanessa, who later became his wife. A reading of Olivia Garard’s review of Victor in the Rubble sets the scene and tone for Finley’s first work.
This time, Victor has been given a well-earned break from Africa and Rubblestan, but finds himself in the thick of a different type of action in Guyandes, a thinly disguised Venezuela. This time around, Victor not only has to contend with drug cartels and a corrupt dictator, but must avoid other dangers, such as anacondas, piranha, and the State Department. Although Victor is no longer butting heads with his own agency, he must still struggle to execute policy while keeping a hilariously woke Assistant Secretary of State in the dark. This task is only complicated by a whistle blower, a Snowden-like leaker who exposes one of Victor's best sources in the name of openness and transparency and with the help of the freedom-loving Chinese government and the completely independent organization, the Committee for Clear and Candid Policy (CCCP).
Although Victor and Vanessa are back, Victor is now surrounded by an entirely new cast of characters, such as his Casanova-ish station chief, informally known as Patron, deputy station chief and master report writer Mike, over-caffeinated rookie officer Adam, and Victor's reggaeton-loving fellow officer Wes. Together they have to deal with a dim-witted and corrupt leftist dictator who would seem like an over-the-top parody to anyone who hadn't paid any attention to Latin America for the last decade or so. Guyandes is ruled by President Evorez, a not-all-that-fictional version of Hugo Chavez. The incompetence of Evorez is surpassed only by his corruption, and he enriches himself enthusiastically while driving his country into poverty.
The book begins with Victor being sent quite literally into the jungle for a meeting with a source (designation VZSPARKLEPONY), who has information on the FPRT, a leftist guerrilla army in neighboring Tamindo, which found that the drug business was more lucrative than revolution. This mission is an especially bad time for Victor to learn that his new boss, deputy station chief Mike, is dangerously incompetent in the field.
Life back in the capital also becomes more exciting, as Vanessa's introduction to her new home is marked by an attempted coup against Evorez. Even more nerve-wracking is her first meeting with the Lunch Bunch, a regular meeting of the embassy wives where they provide each other updates on potty training.
Victor juggles his two main antagonists, the FPRT and Evorez, until the threads start to converge, with potentially disastrous consequences for both Guyandes and the U.S. But rather than sitting back and writing reports, the CIA station decides to take action, making the book not only a satire, but a legitimate spy thriller. I also cheered Finley's decision to get Vanessa into the game, as she was too valuable an asset to leave on the bench. The action ramps up to an exciting climax and a satisfying ending, although I had the rare experience of thinking the author could have let it go on a little bit longer.
Satire can be a scalpel as well as a crowbar…
Finley does not execute her satire with extreme prejudice. Instead, a running theme of both her novels is that stupidity is universal. It has no respect for nationality, religion, ideology, or economics. For every skewering of American bureaucracy, she has an even funnier take on the hilariously inept Evorez. Petty, unthinking, hidebound bureaucracy is as at home in the embassy personnel office as in the Guyandan DMV. Although the CIA is less frustratingly inept than in the first novel, our heroes are not completely free and clear. The bureaucratic mindset is everywhere.
Satire can be a scalpel as well as a crowbar, and Finley wields it skillfully either way. Her chapter on the Lunch Bunch could be a standalone short story. Finley writes:
On the dining table Vanessa saw a spread of food and was shocked, not for how different it was, but how familiar: Doritos, Tostitos, Old El Paso salsa and jarred guacamole lined the table, along with bottles of Pepsi and a carton of Newman's Own Lemonade.[1]
Later, she describes the table as looking "like America had just vomited."[2]
Along with the deliberately insular Lunch Bunch moms, Finley has special scorn for Mike, the ticket-punching deputy station chief who we all know is headed for the top, despite having neither the skill or the inclination for any useful intelligence work. Mike is either unable or unwilling to discern between what is really important and what HQ considers a priority. He fits in well with the Lunch Bunch. Tellingly, all of Mike's stories of his tour in Baghdad are about the hard-partying lifestyle, not of the actual work, or of Iraq itself. America has built miniature Green Zones all around the globe.
In a podcast interview, Finley describes how, after she left the CIA, Victor became her "vessel" to express her frustrations with the bureaucracy. Those frustrations permeate Victor in the Rubble. The bureaucracy is a much smaller character in Victor in the Jungle, and, as Finley describes it, Victor in the Jungle focuses more on fun and adventure. Finley claims she worked out some issues she had with the Agency in her first book, and was able to have more fun with the sequel. Although Finley may have mellowed a bit, the fun and excitement of Victor in the Jungle more than makes up for her easing up on the bureaucrats.
Waste and bureaucracy are unavoidable aspects of war. Armies, intelligence agencies, even terrorist groups face surprisingly similar problems in dealing with them. As the War on Terror grinds on, with no end in sight, Finley reminds us that what we think of as a conflict of organizations (CIA, FBI, al-Qaeda, ISIS) is also a conflict of individuals. Those of us not on the front lines benefit from the insight that the CIA is not made up of suave 00s or the mustache-twirling fascists of the Jason Bourne movies. Finley also continues to provide valuable insights into the nature of large organizations, such as how organizational self-interest, lack of focus on the mission, and failure to empower individual members can erode effectiveness, insights that leaders of any organization should take note of.
What makes Victor in the Jungle such a fine follow-up is that Finley has the ability to find new things to satirize.
Great satire rarely spawns sequels. There is no Office Space II or Catch-23. The satirist generally hits his or her target so perfectly the first time there is no need to fire a second shot. Mike Judge was able to skewer late 90s corporate culture in one movie, and Joseph Heller fit all of his scorn for military bureaucracy into one book. What makes Victor in the Jungle such a fine follow-up is that Finley has the ability to find new things to satirize. A second novel merely to rehash her satire of the GWOT and CIA bureaucracy would have also been unnecessary. But Finley not only finds new targets for her satire—the State Department, corrupt dictators, Ugly American syndrome—she also writes a genuinely fun adventure story that stands on its own.
War is fertile ground for satire. Although the Global War on Terror began eighteen years ago, it shows no signs of ending anytime soon.[3] It has already produced great satire in print such as Joe Kassabian’s Hooligans of Kandahar or Ben Fountain’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, and on film Four Lions and the newly-released FBI satire The Day Shall Come. Finley’s two Victor novels are an excellent addition to this ever-growing genre.
Strategy Bridge readers who enjoy spy thrillers, adventure, or comedy would be advised to seek out this book. Even if you missed Victor in the Rubble—an oversight you should remedy—Victor in the Jungle is a highly enjoyable read. This is not a scholarly work, and it will not prepare you to debate Latin American politics at your next Georgetown cocktail party. It will, however, leave you silently urging Finley to get back to her writing, and eagerly looking forward to Victor's next assignment.
Daniel Scheeringa has bachelor's and law degrees from the University of Illinois, and a masters in Political Science from Virginia Tech. He served two tours of duty in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a Civil Affairs Team Chief. He is an attorney in private practice in Chicago.
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Header Image: Jungle (Unsplash)
Notes:
[1] Alex Finley, Victor in the Jungle (Smiling Hippo Press, 2019), 22.
[2] Ibid., 23.
[3] In fact, to quote Sgt Carver from The Wire: “You can’t even call this s*** a war...Wars end.”