Review: A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
A Woman of No Importance is a biography of Virginia Hall and American spy who was stationed mostly in France and worked for first British than American intelligence agencies. The book focuses mostly on her time as a spy (because duh), but it also gives a decent amount of information about her life pre-espionage and post-retirement from the CIA.
The story this book tells is frankly amazing. Virginia Hall is deeply interesting and was at the center of so much action and danger. You will spend this book being fascinated to see what she is going to do next, also frustrated by how she is constantly undermined due to being a woman and being an amputee.
Sonia Purnell tells the story in an engaging manner; it is almost novel-like in its recitation; if narrative nonfiction is your jam, I recommend this book. She occasionally speculates about the psychological toll the events had on Virginia, but it is not often and always clearly presented as such; this is something I really appreciate.
I absolutely flew through this book, I listened to the audiobook while I was in thesis crunch time, and it really had me wanting to take breaks to see what was going to occur next. It is occasionally a slight bother that there is not more information. Hall was secretive (a spy, so duh) and did not write about her time in WWII after the war, nor did she really tell others what happened, so there are bits that are just missing about her life, so this cannot be held against the author.
I listened to the audiobook of this, but I intend to read a physical copy at some point in the future; I want to highlight and underline and flip back while I read a second go around.
There are also four other books published about Virginia Hall in English. I intend to read at least some of them as well, and a movie, A Call to Spy, comes out later in 2020 in part about Virginia as well as a movie based on this book is in development with Daisy Ridley attached to play Virginia.
Basically I am obsessed with this story and think you should read it to. If you like true stories so intense, you wouldn't believe them as fiction; then this is your book. And if you just wanna read an interesting spy story about someone you don't know much about, then this is also your book. Basically, if you are a person, this is your book.
I gave this book 5 stars on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.
