A biography of “Stalin’s last American Spy.” Noel Field comes of age in the aftermath of World War I and embraces the shiny new ideals of Communism. Through decades of postings at the State Department and overseas, and through his own imprisonment behind the Iron Curtain by a paranoid Stalin, his political faith never wavers and his humanity rarely surfaces. His steadfastness comes across as insipid rather than brave and renders him—and his story—a little dull. Reviewed on Aug. 6, 2020