The Company

by Robert Littell

Book Overview

Christopher Lehmann-Haupt of The New York Times called it "a perfect little gem, the best Cold War thriller I've read in years," and the praise kept coming with critics hailing Littell as "the American Le Carr " (New York Times) and raving that his books were "as good as thriller writing gets" (The Washington Post). For his fourteenth novel, Robert Littell creates an engrossing, multigenerational, wickedly nostalgic yet utterly candid saga, bringing...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585671975
• ISBN13: 9781585671977
• Release Date: April 2002
• Publisher: Overlook Press
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.1" x 6.5" x 9.6"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

A Stern Warning about the Reviews for this Book

First let me say that this is an outstanding reading experience. It has raised the bar for espionage novels that I will be reading going forward. At approx 900 pages, it's an epic and demands the attention of the reader throughout. Get this book. With that said, I was stunned to read other reviews for this book that ruin the reading experience. If it were possible to have someone's review removed...I would look to see how it was done. Harmless as it may seem, there are a few plot twists that come near the end and are profoundly important to the whole scope of the book. To be this careless, simply amazes me. So please. Don't read the following reviews by other readers without some warning that you may be getting more information about the book than you really need or should want at this point. Thank you, islebyours

What's wrong with this book? At 894 pages it's too short!

I am not a big fan of spy novels, in the same way that I don't tend to favour genre fiction. However, having read a shining review for this book in "The Economist", which is not a normally frivolous publication, I picked it up and read it from cover to cover in a few days. The book is a compulsive page-turner. The story is nothing less than that of the CIA from its inception in 1950 to the end of the Cold War in 1992, seen through the lives of several CIA and KGB operatives. The story is rigorously researched and the period details seem to be perfectly portrayed (I am a big fan of contemporary history, and did not find any significant flaws in the book). They follow our boys (mostly boys in this book, no big surprise there) from Berlin in 1950 to Budapest in 1956, to Havana in 1960, to Washington and Moscow in 1974, to Afghanistan in 1983, to Moscow in 1991, with a brief coda somewhere in Virginia in 1995. The main fictional characters are three CIA agents who join at the beginning and then rise through the ranks. They are two-fisted action man Jack McAuliffe, honourable attorney (sic) Winstrom Ebbitt III and efficient organiser Leo Kritzky. An additional character who plays an important role is drunken and deadly Harvey Torriti, the Sorcerer, head of Berlin base at the beginning of the Cold War. Their counterparts are a KGB operative named Yevgeny Tsipin and spymaster Starik (the Old Man). Each of the episodes follows all these characters as the CIA spooks try to outsmart the KGB spies, and vice versa. Many historical figures drop by, some of them in a clearly ficionalised take on their lives. Thus, Martin Bormann is introduced to Yevgeny as a Communist hero who fed Hitler's paranoia and led him to eventually lose the war, Pope John Paul I is shown to have been murdered by a KGB operative for stepping too close to the truth of the dreaded Kholstomer, a far-ranging operation to bring the West to its knees, and statesmen such as Harold Wilson and Henry Kissinger are shown to have been nothing more than KGB agents. Some of the best parts of the book concern the author's obvious delight in spy craft. Many familiar devices such as cypher books, dead box drops, barium meals and all types of bugs turn up, and we learn a few new ones, such as walking back the cat (don't ask). Littell's spies are thoroughly professional and their work is hard, dangerous and unappreciated. Old spies such as The Sorcerer, the historic James Jesus Angleton or Starik die alone, forgotten by all, or almost all. The set pieces (the Soviet invasion of Budapest in 1956, the Bay of Pigs fiasco in 1960 or the attempted coup in Moscow in 1991) are very well put together and hugely exciting. Political leaders, both American and Soviet (Eisenhower, Bobby Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, Leonid Brezhnev, Yuri Andropov, Mijail Gorbachev) come out particularly poorly as they misunderstand the very valuable intelligence information they receive and abandon their agents and allies whenever exped

A MASTERPIECE FOR LOVERS OF SPY FICTION

"The Company" is simply the best spy novel that I have ever read.As an alumnus of the CIA and an unabashed lover of spy fiction in all of its forms,I also tend to be a tough critic. However,Littell has created a masterpiece.He skillfully blends real-lifeand fictional characters and weaves a story based around real events -- the Soviet invasion of Hungary,the Bay of Pigs,theAble Archer incident that could have led to World War III,andthe attempted coup against Gorbachev that finally put an end to the Soviet Union. This approach easily could have gone awry.Sincemost of the actual events and real-life characters are well-known,the book could have either been boring or incredible.Instead,it is a compelling story in which the reader cares about all of the characters and gets completely caught up in even thefamiliar events of the past.Littell treats all of his characters-- even the "villains" -- relatively sympathetically,which makesthe whole novel more interesting and compelling.Most important,hedemostrates that he is a masterful story teller.I was genuinelysad to finish this book.I would have gladly read another 900 pages!

Complete Historical Context

Robert Littell has written some of the best books in this genre but for some reason he does not seem to have the audience of a LeCarre, a Ludlum, and others. If you enjoy any of the well known and widely read of this type you will certainly enjoy this man's work. "The Company", is a massive work of almost 900 pages, it still reads well and is in no way ponderous or excessive. As many books seem to continually shorten it is a pleasing exception that Mr. Littell took all the time and pages he needed to tell his story.To any readers of Cold War novels all of the topics that are covered in this book will be familiar but not unwelcome. This book covers a very large portion of the CIA'S existence and presents familiar events as part of a continuum as opposed to focusing on a single event like The Bay Of Pigs, Kennedy, Suez, etc in isolation. There are very good books on all of these topics both documentary and in the form of novels. This work places them all in a larger continual historical context as well as a more realistic one. These historical events did not take place in solitary or in a vacuum, they were events that were planned and dealt with together with all of the other issues that were at hand for the agency at the time. They were also planned and executed by people who developed and created the atmosphere of the agency with their talents as well as their faults. By presenting the large picture as opposed to an isolated historical event, Mr. Littell gives readers the wide perspective that only an inclusive history can offer.This is a novel and while not appropriate it is tempting to forget that what you are reading contains much truth albeit as presented in the form of literary fiction. Mr. Littell clearly has his favorites and those he thinks little of in terms of the players who conducted the operations at the agency. He gets close to the edge of editorial extreme with some of his depictions but I don't know that he really crossed any lines that readers will find difficult to accept.If you have never read this man's work, this is not only a great place to begin, but also a grand tale told with the appropriate pace.

Important and entertaining reading.

"The Company" is an big, engrossing novel that succeeds on several levels: First, it is as enjoyable as all get out. Second, it serves as a living history review of clandestine U.S. ventures going back to World War II. And third, no matter what political perspective you come from, you will come away a different take on the War on Terrorism. Robert Littell takes several young men who joined the brand-new CIA after the war and follows their careers. All enter the spy game because their experiences with communism during the war have lead them to believe that it is a destructive element that must be halted. From the same war comes a young communist who as whole-heartedly believes that communism is the salvation of the world. They will fight on different battlegrounds throughout "The Company"--Berlin, Hungary, Cuba, Afghanistan--until communism collapses.In many ways, "The Company" is a standard spy thriller, with ample supply of the requisite secrets, double-crossing, and triple agents. There's an unnecessary Alice in Wonderland theme throughout and some clunky writing. But what makes the book stand out is not just the skill Littell brings to the plot, but the scope. This is a history of covert activities, and because we see so many major incursions represented, we can watch disturbing patterns develop. It seems that since WWII, the U.S. has entered a number of frays for all the right reasons and withdrawn before the matter could be resolved. "The Company" deals with the spies and civilians left dangling, and raises questions about earlier policies that may have left us vulnerable to terrorists.This is a timely book that I hope will excite discussion and increase understanding. If readers don't agree with Littell's take on events, then I hope they'll do research on their own. "The Company" should encourage readers to take a look at the past, and is a whopping good read to boot.