Customer Reviews

The Company : A Novel of the CIA

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

TC is a fine novel, through and through. In the span of 894 quick-reading pages, I noted only two annoying plot elements -- both, brief and of trivial importance. I'm in no position to judge whether TC conveys a truthful picture of the CIA or not. Judged from that perspective, it may well merit a low rating. Judged as a novel, only, I rate it quite high. It's hard to imagine a more engaging and adroitly weaved tale of spycraft, nor a more believable one. I look forward to reading other Littell novels.

An amazing book, probably the most enjoyable book I've ever read and easily the best spy novel. Recommended 100 percent.

Liked it better than Mailer's Harlot's Ghost. Liked it so well that I am propelled into reading more re CIA (Legacy of Ashes) and more by Littell (The Debriefing).

I'm even thinking eventually to return to the Mamiler book.

THE COMPANY is a great read about the history of the CIA, if you can make it to the end of its 896 pages. Littell's protagonist, Jack McAuliffle is the all-American boy turned spy trying to survive Berlin, Cuba, and the Middle East while trying to stay ahead of the Russian mole hidden deep in the CIA fabric. Following McAuliffle, and his mentor "the Sorceror," the plotline is simple--every battle, every intelligence confrontation from the 50s through the 70s seemingly finds the Russians winning. And yet McAuliffle preserves, and in the end the Wall comes down.

This author quite clearly has inside connections and information from the intelligence community - he almost certainly interviewed or is acquainted with people who are or were active agents in their field. One impression I am left with is the scene of the midnite assasination of a high-ranking member of the (Catholic) clergy in recent times. Anyone with memory of recent (20 yrs.)historic headlines should be able to figure out what the implication of this scenario is. Think two Popes back.

For the last couple of months, I have been enjoying the hell out of this massive novel, which seems to pretty accurately portray the mind-set and culture of the CIA. Obviously, many of us have mixed feelings about American Intelligence, as these people have sometimes played the roles of heroes, but have also been the authors of some very questionable and illegal "mischief" and disinformation generation through the years, but might still enjoy a novel about "spy-craft." Among the "highly suspect" aspects of the CIA is the fact that post-WWII, there was a recruitment of many NAZI intelligence officers formerly in the Gehlen Organization, as part of "Operation Paperclip" in the late forties, and the murder of the South Vietnam president in 1963. As these people were virulently anti-Communist, it might also help explain the hyper-polarization of American society during the McCarthy Era. This is a superior piece of work, but I have a bone to pick over some elements I have encountered therein.

It has been pretty clearly established that the CIA Head of Counterintelligence in the sixties was not just a clever, paranoid, driven, eccentric mess (as represented in this book), who seriously damaged the agency, and ruined the careers of many senior operatives, but was also probably a Soviet mole, just as Kim Philby was proved to be (with whom he had closely worked in the UK during WWII, and afterwards, in the States), and that his inability to find the mole "SASHA" despite the dedication of many thousands of hours to this pursuit, was arguably because he-himself was the quarry he had been supposedly seeking. A close parallel can be drawn between James Jesus Angleton and the Chris Cooper character in the motion picture, "Breach." This book, at most, hints at this likelihood.

Through the years, we have come to see that the Kennedy assassinations were primarily "Company" operations, with the actual "shooters" being recruited from organized crime, possibly a Corsican branch (with some part played by LBJ, Nixon and CIA's George H.W.Bush), powerfully aided and abetted by the FBI, particularly in a subsequent cover-up role. Certainly, during this operation, Allen Dulles (whom JFK had recently fired over the Bay of Pigs debacle), David Atlee Phillips, Win Scott and Angleton were "in the loop." As these were highly-placed figures, this dramatically demolishes the contention that this was a "rogue operation" by "a few bad apples" in the CIA. It also negates the claim by many (e.g., Waldron in his massive "Legacy of Secrecy") that the "Mob" was behind the "hit." A couple of dependable references are "Deep Politics and the Death of JFK," and "JFK and the Unspeakable," by Scott and Douglass, respectively.

Please allow me to remind you that one of the key pieces of evidence refuting the Warren Commission's lame conclusion of Oswald's having been the "lone gunman," is the fact of David Atlee Phillips' admission, during a UCLA panel discussion during the nineties, that Oswald had never been in Mexico City when he was reported to have been.

How could this book, set in the fifties and sixties, not touch on this critical piece of business? I will add that Scott was ultimately convinced that the Kennedy hit was less a "Company" op, than a reflection of the Powers that Be. I.e., it reflected a "systemic problem." This seems like reasonable ammunition against those who keep ranting (as with the 9-11 disaster), "how could such a plot, involving so many, remain hidden?" If the commission of a given criminal offense were in the interest of many people, and the media were beholden to these same people (and if a corrupt system was sympathetic to same offense), it might well have occurred, and be readily covered up by a media smoke-screen. And, even more so in recent times, when we have witnessed a dramatic merging of the Media Giants.

Similarly, we have a fair amount of information about the murder of Pope John Paul I, in office only a month, related to his being on the cusp of cashiering a bunch of higher-ups in the Roman Curia, who were part of the illegal Masonic P2 organization and/or associated with banking corruption--figures like Paul Marcinkus, head of the Vatican Bank, along with Roberto Calvi of the Banco Ambrosiano. There is no need to postulate Soviet Intelligence as the culprits, as Littell does. This is a good example of a "red herring."

Perhaps most problematic is the suggestion that our supplying Islamic extremists with Stinger missiles in Afghanistan (against the Russians) might ultimately back-fire on us. Not that this might not contain a grain of truth, you understand, but the 9-11 attack has been revealed (to anyone still in possession of gray matter) as an American (with possible Mossad involvement) Pearl Harbor-type "false flag"operation, designed to allow the Project for a New American Century to commence--with great gobs of flag-waving--with the unlikely "cover-story" being the claim of an attack by crazed young Islamists with box cutters and a few hours of flight-training (unaccountably absent from the original Airline passenger lists) and Al Qaeda connections, orchestrated by the Biggest Bad Wolf in recent history, bin Laden (whose family has been associated with the Bush family--and the Carlyle Group--for many years, again, oddly enough!), very recently apprehended, shot and deposited in the ocean, not withstanding that he had been dead eight to ten years because of long-standing kidney disease. This is very much in the spirit of "Through the Looking Glass," that Littell is fond of citing. Who else, but the Company, could resuscitate a major bogeyman, only to turn around and immediately murder him, and then "deep-six" him (thus destroying the evidence)...and then be believed by all the major media outlets? This is truly miraculous, or as Mr. Dodgson would say, things have been getting "curiouser and curiouser." Read the book, by all means, but please do not check your critical faculties at the door.

The Company may be the best book I've ever read. Captivating and mesmerizing! And what a cast of characters. Gee. I really don't think you can make this stuff up;) Don't let the shear size of this book scare you. Just don't drop it. And last of all: Welcome to the Wilderness of Mirrors.

I could not put down this book. And when I had to, I eagerly looked forward to picking it up again.

Littell has given us a well-researched novel that is both gripping and informative. You must take into account that the novel is a fictionalized version of the CIA. The storyline is historically accurate; only some of the finer details, conversations and behind-the-scenes conjectures are fiction. So even though actual CIA figures such as Allen Dulles, James Jesus Angleton and Richard Bissell populate the novel, many of their actions and dialogues are imagined. He weaves fictional characters together with real historical figures seamlessly to create a very interesting and engaging version of what happened behind the scenes of post-WWII Berlin, the 1956 Hungarian uprising and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. Although some of Littell's ideas smack of popular conspiracy theories, his top-notch writing and mesmerizing story telling abilities help to keep the reader enthralled (similar, but not quite as extreme as Oliver Stone's film "JFK").

This is a very entertaining and thrilling novel. If you enjoy fictionalized histories such as "The Killer Angels" by Michael Shaara, then you will love this novel.

On a side note, TNT developed a mini-series based on this novel (teleplay by Ken Nolan) which is also excellent (especially considering that it is made for TV). The novel obviously goes into much greater detail, but I was surprised by how well the mini-series was adapted.

The only downside to this novel is that (as of this writing) it is not available on Kindle. Having to lug around a 900 page book only meant that I did not have it with me all the time and I yearned for it when we were apart.

Have a closer look at the trials and tribulations of some very dedicated people on both sides of the iron curtain.

Great read. I recommend it to anyone who likes spy novels mixed with history.

The difficulty in creating a story that spans many years is trying to keep the branches on the tree from growing too wide. Robert Little does an excellent job. Many twists and turns with the core characters staying relevant.