This was the 7th book I read in 2021.
One of my coworkers recommended reading this book as we bonded over our common interests of books and cryptography. When he introduced me to this book, he gave me a gist what this book was about and why I should read it and I must tell you that this book didn’t disappoint even a single bit.
Why you should read this book?
The author of this book, Mr. Jason Fagone, has gone to tremendous lengths to make sure the truth comes out before the world regarding the origins of the NSA (National Security Agency). Most of us (including myself) are not aware about how cryptography played a huge role in winning the WWII. Before reading this book, I used to think the US won the WWII because of their military power and scientific advancements, but I never knew what actually happened behind the scenes and how the US could crack every move of their enemy country.
I am a huge sucker of reading WWII material, so it was natural that I would love this book, but I wasn’t prepared to see the transcripts, notes, and collection of the great Elizebeth (notice the “z” instead of “a”) Friedman. The author has made sure to keep this book as authentic as possible and most of the credit goes to Mrs. Friedman, who kept all these notes while working on top secret mission for the Coast Guard on behalf of the US Government. I cannot emphasize enough about how authentic and convincing this book is and it definitely made me wonder how Mr. and Mrs. Friedman worked on top secret missions for the US Government, without revealing their secrets to anyone (not even to each other).
Behind the scenes of WWII
Reading behind the scenes of the WWII stories was my favorite part of the book.
The book starts off with Elizebeth’s stay in Riverbank, which I found to be a boring part of the book, only because of Mr. Fabyan. I didn’t like reading about Mr. Fabyan’s glory and his craziness of scientific experiences and proving some theory which only he believed in and not anyone else. Once I got past the Riverbank part of the book, it became very hard for me to put the book down. The book just became more interesting with each page and it reached the epitome of thriller and suspense when the US got involved in WWII.
The best thing about Mrs. Friedman that I liked was she always wanted to keep low profile while working on some of the most important Cryptanalysis work. If there would have been someone else in her place, that person would have gotten tired of someone else like FBI taking the credit for the work that she had done, but she was very comfortable with the setting with the fact that as long as the enemy nations such as Japan and Germany doesn’t know about her cracking their codes.
It is one thing to crack a cryptic code and another to make sense of the decrypted message. Mrs. Friedman was working for the Coast Guard and used to satiate the cryptanalysis for Coast Guard, FBI, and other Government agencies, so she became a bridge between different Government agencies, helping them teach how to help one another. Not only she acted as a good Samaritan for the greater good of the country, she provided them vital information based on her analytical ability to make sense of the decoded messages. It was a great learning experience for me as she demonstrated going an extra mile for the team. Apart from delivering these highly sophisticated decrypted messages, she made sure she took notes of all the decrypted messages and meaning of each decrypted text for her note keeping purposes, which would turn out to be very important in the post-WWII era.
How Mrs. Friedman balanced both personal and professional lives
It was commendable just how coolly and easily Mrs. Friedman handled her both personal and professional life. Being in charge of US’ largest cryptanalysis unit and appearing to defend her decrypting abilities before the court, she had to travel a lot, but that didn’t deter her from writing to her husband. At the same time, when her husband was deployed in Army for top secret missions, they kept writing each other letters, planning when the letter would reach each other and which address to give since her husband had to move a lot to support his mission.
When I read about it, I was stunned, because in today’s world of always-on relationship, I sometimes don’t get time to catch up with my friends and family, let alone writing a letter for them. It was truly commendable to read how much they loved each other and wanted to keep their love alive through those love letters.
Apart from the love letters, both Mr. and Mrs. Friedman had this lovely holiday tradition, where they would draft out a cryptic puzzle for all their friends and family and they used to ask them to solve it and see who gets it first. I thought that was such a cool thing to do to bring the family together and have some good time with each other.
Being a busy cryptography professional didn’t mean she ignored her children. She was always in touch with them and was aware about what was going on their lives. I really adore this quality in her, as I am a huge fan of women who are independent and who knows how to take care of their families. I loved every single bit of information that the author gave about her personal life, just as much as her work as a cryptography expert.
I wish I could give you more reasons to read this book, but I would say just give it a shot and it will definitely turn out to be a good read.
See you at the next book review!
stochasticity 
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