Bottoms Up And The Devil Laughs by Kerry Howley

 

This book is meant as an exploration of the National Security infrastructure and whether it is overreaching into everyday people's lives.  The author starts with the case of John Walker Lindh who fought in Afghanistan for the enemy and served time back in the United States.  This leads to a discussion of enemy torture.  Then the cases of Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, both of whom leaked government documents.  

The main thrust of the book follows the case of Reality Winner.  She was recruited at age eighteen into the military and taught various languages from the countries the United States was engaged in war with.  After she left the military, she got top secret clearance and worked as a translator.  Bored, she wanted to go to Afghanistan and interact directly with people as a translator.  In that state, she found a top secret document that she thought showed evidence of Russian interference in American elections.  She sneaked it out of the office and sent it to a whistleblowing site, which released it.  Winner was arrested and eventually served time for her offense.

Kerry Howley is a journalist and writing professor whose articles and short stories have been published in various publications and magazines.  This book was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and a New York Times Top Ten Book of the Year but it felt unorganized to me.  Howley seems to flit from topic to topic and never really settle on a uniting theme.  Various topics include the use of enhanced interrogations, the cases of other whistleblowers, a long discussion of Winner's trial and eventual plea deal and the concept that we are all just data points and have no privacy.   A more focused discussion on any of these themes would have made for a better book.  This book is recommended for nonfiction readers.