Customer Reviews

The Amateur

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have been on a Robert Littell reading binge lately and have become quite a fan. He ranks right up there with John le Carre, Ken Follett and Len Deighton when it comes to well written, original, intelligent espionage thrillers. I also enjoy Littell's use of irony and his dry sense of humor.

Charlie Heller is a quiet, unassuming man with a quiet, unassuming job in a back office of a large corporation. He is a crack cryptographer for the CIA - The Company. Since his boyhood he has been fascinated with untangling codes and he considers himself fortunate that he is able to pay the rent by doing a job that he so enjoys. As an added attraction, he gets to use the CIA's super-sophisticated computer, with which he pursues his hobby. Heller is a Shakespeare "denialist" and searches all of the great bard's works trying to find a cryptogram which will reveal their true author. So, with a well paid job, an unusual and most interesting hobby, and the love of a wonderful woman, his beloved fiancee Sarah Diamond, Charlie Heller is a happy man.

Unfortunately, Sarah is brutally murdered by terrorists in a surprise attack at the American Embassy in West Germany. (The novel is set in the 1970s). Charlie, informed of the news by his sympathetic superiors, is bereft. His feelings of loss and subsequent depression are clearly portrayed by Littell, as is the terrible bitterness he feels when he learns that The Company will not pursue the terrorists who committed the crime, even though their identity and location is known. They are behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia. Heller becomes driven by a need for revenge, which his Company psychiatrist notes is "very therapeutic." With his back against the wall, Heller manages to manipulate the masters of manipulation and move toward his goal of assassinating the terrorists responsible for Sarah's death. He is an amateur - "someone who thinks that if something is worth doing, it may be worth doing badly" - working against some of the best people in the field of espionage and assassination. And they all want to take Heller out with extreme prejudice.

This book is a real page turner. I could not put it down. Heller is an extremely well developed character and his motivation and talents are well thought-out and make perfect sense in the storyline. The minor characters are also terrific. His Czech contact is a brilliant addition to the plot and her constant malaprops bring much needed comic relief to many taut, tense situations. If you enjoy this book, you may want to check-out Robert Littell's "The Company." It is another excellent novel. Happy reading.
JANA

Robert Littell's "The Amateur" opens as well as one could hope for in an espionage thriller. In a scene the author describes with chilling clarity, a terrorist raid on a government office in Europe results in the cold-blooded execution -- on camera -- of a beautiful, innocent American woman. And the terrorists appear to fly to safety behind the Iron Curtain (the book is set in the Reagan era) without so much as a scratch.

Heller, the dead woman's fiance, just happens to be a top CIA cryptographer. Far from a field agent, Heller's a nerd, content to be squirrelled away with his computer and completely consumed with the idea of proving who in fact wrote Shakespeare's plays. Far from a field agent, his is the amateur of the title.

His life in ruins, Heller appears to be destined for a long slow decline into depression and alcoholism. But, through his fiance's father, Heller learns of the restorative power of revenge. Soon, Heller has blackmailed the CIA into letting him seek revenge, and he's getting trained as a field agent. His plan is to go behind the Iron Curtain and kill the three terrorists who murdered his beloved fiance.

But, for unspecified, ominous reasons, the Powers-That-Be at the CIA don't seem too excited about Heller's plan, and their frustrations aren't just due to the fact that Heller has successfully blackmailed the Company.

Thus far, "The Amateur" is a perfectly satisfactory thriller. Refreshingly, the story relies more on the human element than high-tech gadgetry, so it's nice to see Heller relying on his own wits and courage. Littell's writing is appropriately direct and concise -- he's not a Clancy-esque windbag getting sidetracked on matters of politics or superfluous subplots. But after Heller gets into the field, the book spins a little out of control, which is surprising considering how controlled the first half was.

Littell, I suppose, was in a bit of a quandary with Heller. After all, Heller is not a field agent and only receives a few weeks of assassination-related training. So it wouldn't be logical for Heller to suddenly become the next James Bond. But in allowing Heller to get from A to B to C, Littell allows Heller to benefit from a few too many coincidences. Note -- if you're ever working with a CIA agent in the field, don't ever exchange items of clothing that might cause you to be mistaken for the agent through a rifle scope. And if you're sidling up behind the field agent to put a bullet in his brain, don't give the agent time to be suddenly distracted so that he turns his head, causing you to miss.

It's also a little contrived that folks on the other side of the Iron Curtain with whom Heller gets involved are also fixated on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Yes, it's an interesting field of study, but to have so many experts in that subject in one small novel (only 252 pages) just ain't plausible.

This is the first of Littell's books that I've read, and I'm surely going to look into his other works. But I have to say that I was disappointed with certain aspects of this book -- not only did the book show great promise at the beginning, Littell's reputation had preceded him, so I had high expectations.

It has been some years since I read the book so that is why I am only giving it a four. But it is one of those that stays with you long after many similar genre works are long forgotten so it should get a five. I loved Littel working the plot from the aspect of a CIA staffer who works in cryptography - not your typical Bond type. The cryptologist uses his knowledge of what is going on and hides CIA information to force the Agency to train him to exact revenge on the terrorists who killed his fiance. I also loved the sub plot of "who wrote Shakespeare's work." While Robert Ludlum and Clancy are still my favorites and both turn out excellent reads I would add Littel to my list of those who need to be read. And The Amateur is one of my very favorites.

How bad is this book? One: the main character's love interest is a total mismatch for him. All the hooha around the relationship rings very, very hollow. Two: while scrambling to get away from his pursuers, the main character is conveniently whisked away in a plot twist that is astoundingly unrealistic and shows great contempt for the reader's intellect. Three: that "how convenient" nonsense keeps repeating itself. This book might have worked as a parody of spy thrillers, but as the real thing it's just sad.

I discovered this book through the local library...something to keep me company, keep me awake on long road trips. I've been doing that for four years now...and there is only one other book in all that time which I enjoyed this much. The plot is engaging, the subject matter of ciphers and life inside The Company is fascinating, the characters well drawn, all the details are well-chosen, and the premise is sufficiently believable...I've been savoring in advance a relistening and am now almost through it again...and I'm enjoying it even more the second time. Looking forward to more of his books.

Robert Littell is the father of Jonathan Littell, of French literary fame. Apparently, though, talent is not genetically transmitted. The efforts of Littell Senior focused on spy thrillers, which might have been just fine. But in this book, the 'amateur' tag too often applies to the writer, not his hero. The writing is bad, at times comically so: it is full of clichés, of non sequiturs and dangling gerunds. When Littell finds a good image, he feels compelled to repeat it three times to make sure the reader is sufficiently impressed with it. His dialogues and situations take on an air of wise irony, but then the bombastic action scenes only fall flat as a result. The opening scene, in particular, expected to both shock and move, is plain embarrassing. And there are howlers, practical and historical. A key protagonist is supposed to die, horribly mangled, simply from falling through the porthole of a swimming pool emptying into an adjacent bar. Another man is given a 1939 chateau-Lafitte bottle on his engagement to a woman who, it is revealed a few lines along, died at the time of the Austrian Anschluss: if that is so, he got a engaged to a dead woman, since the Anschluss happened in 1938 (I had to reread the whole anecdote three times). And in the end scene, the two enemies take careful time to summarise the plot one last time for the reader's benefit before beginning to shoot each other out.

This is all the more a shame that The Amateur might have been a nice little one to bring back Cold War thrills. The overall plot, the premise at least, is good: in the 1970s, a disgruntled CIA agent elopes into Czechoslovakia on a hunt for his fiancée's killer, pursued both by the communists and his own, erstwhile employers. Littell does seem to have done some research into encoding, even if his portrayal of the CIA's inner workings is on the cute, stereotypical side. And the story moves along and more or less holds together, except perhaps for the questionable denouement. But poor execution ensures the book does note quite make its mark. I managed to enjoy The Amateur because I once lived in Prague and found the odd nostalgic whiff, but this is otherwise a two-star rather than a three-star review.

The story concerns a CIA cryptographer who wishes to assasinate the terrorists that killed his fiance. Good premise but the story contains so many coincidences and cliches that it just doesn't seem believable. Most of the story moves at a good pace - lagging only in a few spots. I don't recommend this book - there are much better thrillers on the market.

A well-thought-out narrative, with an elaborate cryptology included.
This author is an excellent writer, and the book had me in its grasp
from the very beginning. Nothing can be more exciting than an AMATEUR
spy.

This book was a page turner. I loved it all. There were times when I had to put it aside to absorb some of the violence (justified on the hero's side), but enjoyed all of his wily deceiptions.

It is much more interesting than the movie.

Littell must have shot his load on "The Company" -- a supberb book -- because every other thing I've read by him is disappointing. This book, though it has some good points, is also a letdown. The book starts off with a riveting bang and continues with a few chapters of high-energy tension. But then comes the inevitable spy novel fixture --- the chase -- and in Littell's hands, it is woeful. In fact, it's just plain silly. The second half of the book is simply a parade of coincidences and unbelieveable plot turns that the author seemingly just whips out with little regard to believeability. It's insulting to the reader. Littell is capable of much better, but to my mind, he never achieves it, thus consigning him to the second or third tier of spy novel writers. Pity.