The Defection of A. J. Lewinter: A Novel of Duplicity [Hardcover]

Robert Littell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 14, 2002

This is Littell at the top of his form, constructing a tale of espionage and counterespionage that reveals the dirty tricks and dangerous secrets concerning the subjects he knows intimately - The CIA and American history, past and present.

At the center of Littell's plot is an elite plan, so secret and so dangerous that its existence is known only to a tiny group of specialists within the CIA headquarters. There is virtually no paper trail - but, somehow, the plan has sprung a leak. The plotters most urgently trace it - or face deadly consequences. Meanwhile, at work elsewhere on another highly sensitive project for "the Company" is an operative known as "the Weeder"--a man obsessed with American history and one of its heroes. When the Weeder's and Washington's clandestine world collide, the present faces the past and disturbing moral choices are weighed against a shining patriotic dream. What is the truth? Whose truth should be revealed?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The reissue of this 1973 Cold War gem comes on the heels of Littell's recent hardcover thriller The Company. Set in the early 1970s, the spy thriller-cum-black comedy begins when A.J. Lewinter, an eccentric American engineer specializing in nose cones for ballistic missiles, decides to defect to the Soviet Union. Such a high-level defection is unprecedented, and each side suspects the other of something fishy. A hilarious contest ensues as they try to outconnive each other. On the American side is a coldly libidinous intelligence agent named Diamond (when a mistress asks him what he would have done if she hadn't passed a security background check, he says, "I would have taken you to bed-but I wouldn't have talked to you"). His KGB analogue is the nervous Pogodin (self-described as "one-quarter Marxist, one-quarter humanist, and one-half bureaucrat"), who knows too well the consequences of any mistake. The book paints a bleak view of both sides of the Cold War divide: the socialist dream has given way to a police state plagued by chronic food shortages and ruled by an elite oligarchy that gets the few decent cars and apartments in Moscow, while on democracy's home front, race riots and antiwar protests multiply. Concise, smart and funny, this novel turns Cold War spy cliches on their head. Though the ambiguous ending no longer terrifies, this book still packs a punch and seems prescient to boot. Those who only know Littell's more recent works should enjoy this fast, fun trip into the past.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"A brilliantly clever story, emphasizing the nuances of absurdity, menace, and violence inherent in security operations...lively, energetic, easy to read." -- Julian Symonds, The Independent

"Littell deserves his comparisons with Deighton and LeCarré." -- The Times, London

"Robert Littell writes smart, sharp thrillers. The Once and Future Spy may be his smartest and sharpest to date...What raises this book above Littell's excellent average is its range of marvelous characters...Plots as feline and style as dashing as Littell's are rare in the spy genre." -- The Observer, London

"The Once and Future Spy is, if anything, even better than Robert Littell's previous thrillers. It is intriguing, funny, quirky, challenging, and above all, diverting. Get it and read it." -- Robert Elegant

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Overlook Hardcover (October 14, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585673471
• ISBN-13: 978-1585673476
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #732,340 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bestselling author Robert Littell has been ranked amongst John Le Carre and Graham Greene for his masterful spy fiction. A Newsweek journalist in a previous incarnation, Littell has been writing about the Soviet Union and Russians since his first novel, the espionage classic The Defection of A.J.Lewinter. Among his numerous critically acclaimed novels are The October Circle, Mother Russia, The Debriefing, The Sisters, The Revolutionist, The Once and Future Spy, An Agent in Place, The Visiting Professor, the New York Times bestselling The Company (adapted for a TNT mini-series), and Legends (winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Award for Best Thriller of 2005) and For the Future of Israel, a book of conversations with Shimon Peres. Littell is an American who makes his home in France.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic defection story, July 1, 2003

By 

D. Edger (Choctaw, OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Defection of A. J. Lewinter: A Novel of Duplicity (Hardcover)

Littell's book reads as well today as it did when published. This is an excellent introduction to the cold war science of defector exploitation told from both the US and Soviet view. This short book is a good, fast read from an author who frequently "does" intelligence right. After a career in the business myself, he is one of only a few authors who I can always read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very intriguing, April 12, 2006

By 

U2pop "u2pop" (Atlanta) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Defection of A. J. Lewinter: A Novel of Duplicity (Hardcover)

"The Defection of A. J. Lewinter" is a great book and a page-turner at that. A guy you wouldn't give a second thought to decides to defect while on a trip to Tokyo. As the Americans you have to decide if the defector has anything worth defecting for! At the same time the Russians have to do their best to figure out if he's genuine or a plant!

If you've ever seen a cat chasing its tail then you'll get a kick out of this book. Everyone is chasing shadows and the one caught in the middle is A.J. Lewinter. The ending is a great little plot twist and a thoroughly enjoyable read.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The games spies play, September 25, 2010

By 

TChris (Tzer Island) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Defection of a. J. Lewinter, The (Mass Market Paperback)

A.J. Lewinter, a physicist specializing in ceramics who does military research on missile nosecones, defects to the Soviet Union (the novel was published in 1973, when the Soviet Union still existed). His knowledge of ceramics isn't likely to be helpful to the Russians, but Lewinter may have obtained accurate knowledge of missile trajectories--information that could enable the Soviet Union to develop an effective anti-missile defense. The American government isn't quite sure whether Lewinter was able to memorize the trajectory formulas during his brief time with them, while the Soviets aren't quite sure whether Lewinter is a genuine defector with useful information, a genuine defector who has been given false information to fool the Soviets, or an American agent.

Littell's novel takes a fun look at the games played by espionage services. The Americans want the Russians to believe Lewinter's information is useless. The Russians, in turn, need to figure out whether they're being played by the Americans. The novel takes us through the reasoning processes employed by both sides. The characters, on both the American and Russian side, are interesting albeit one-dimensional. This is more of a cerebral novel than an action-packed thriller, but the twists and turns taken by the Americans and Russians as each side tries to out-think and to out-deceive the other make the novel a gripping read.