The Company: A Novel of the CIA Paperback – Deckle Edge, March 25, 2003

Written with the zest of the genres' best tacticians. Leaving one with immensely satisfying visions of ...

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JSV

February 21, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Long ago, I'd listened to this book on tape. So when I went seeking a holiday trip espionage thriller, the dust jacket immediately brought to mind the epic thrill-ride on which Littell's tome had once taken me.

Marguerite in hand. The tidal currents lapping at the shore before me. I hefted The Company, and read. My God, what a trip.

Littell's masterwork offers little of the testosterone-packed, punch-and-shoot narrative found in many of today's espionage tales. Instead, it provides a muscular overview of one of history's most memorable ages. The Cold War. Littered with real life characters, scenes and events pulled from headlines and history books. Written with the zest of the genres' best tacticians. Leaving one with immensely satisfying visions of steam rising off Berlin's shadowy midnight streets. Of the angst-ridden, cat-and-mouse games waged between Soviet and American intelligence operatives. Of the scotched-soaked breath of history's renowned spy-hunters. And the friends who outwitted and betrayed them.

This is historical fiction as it was meant to be written. With Le Carre's intelligence. Fleming's punch. Kundera's keen insights. Wrapped within a historical tapestry that could only have been written by one who has vigorously immersed himself in the times. Encompassing a 50-year chess match waged between super powers.

If you wish to be teleported into that simmering era, read this. You will learn much, enjoy often, and be forever thankful for having done so. And as you read those first pages, you will be envied by those of us who have already been there.

One person found this helpful

One book leads to another

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Joan Grayson

July 28, 2014

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

When I'm not really involved with a book I often find myself critical of small errors or distracted by clumsy dialogue. While The Company has its share, it is such an interesting read that I wasn't bothered at all. The mix of characters, both real and fictionalized, was fascinating. Moral ambiguity, gray areas, hindsight, obsession, smart guys doing foolish things, "bad" guys doing good things.....all thought provoking enough to encourage me to read more non-fiction about the Cold War era. Off to read the new book about about Kim Philby.....A Spy Among Friends.

2 people found this helpful

As good as a spy novel can get

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September 7, 2006

Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I was sorry to finish this, as there was no more to read. You know the feeling: A book creates an entire world so well that you feel like you're being evicted when there's no more left to read. Books can't manage this without being long, epic and well done. "The Company" succeeds on all accounts.

"The Company" follows a group of CIA employees over the course of lives and careers paralleling and embodying the entire Cold War. And the Cold War's epic novels must necessarily focus, like this one, on spies. Because in the shadows is where this war mostly got fought over nearly half a century. Littell writes one of the few novels showing the spy game actually playing out, as it did, over decades.

We meet young spooks Jack McAuliffe, Leo Kritzky, and Ebby Ebbitt as they join the "Company" (or, to insiders in those days, "The Pickle Factory") in 1950. The Cold War is heating up with real combat about to break out in Korea amid worries that Western Europe may topple into Communism. Kritzky goes to work in the agency's Washington headquarters, while McAuliffe and Ebbitt are posted in Europe on the front lines. McAuliffe goes to work for the already legendary Harvey Torriti, "the Sorcerer", the rough-and-tumble, heavy-boozing Berlin bureau chief and the complete opposite of the three Ivy League rookies. Berlin is the epicenter of the early Cold War, with defections, penetrations and kidnappings back and forth across a city divided by power but not yet a wall. Ebbitt works elsewhere in West Germany, trying to insert agents behind the Iron Curtain to foment revolt. But too many ops are blown, sending to their deaths brave emigres who had trusted the CIA with their lives. The legendary James Jesus Angleton hunts for a mole among the British; history buffs know, of course, who it is. After Kim Philby's defection, though, he is replaced by a mysterious agent code-named SASHA, managed by the brilliant but perverted KGB spymaster Starik. Angleton, slipping into paranoia as the game's levels of deception mount, turns the Company upside down trying to find the mole.

Through the eyes of the spooks, and the women in their lives, we see Berlin, the failed Hungarian 1956 uprising, the Bay of Pigs, the secret world of American Communists, Afghanistan and the failed right-wing coup against Gorbachev in 1991 that sealed Soviet Communism's demise. The episodes involving the first three particularly bring a tremendous amount of detail to bear on a period now receding into history. Littell captures so well the flavor and tension of the times. He even brings some sympathy to bear on his Communist agents, who give up normal lives and human connections to live underground and fight their idealistic but misguided war for the triumph of socialism. And he shows the moral dilemmas involved in fighting this kind of war - a tension still felt today in the War on Terror. Through his characters' eyes we see, on one hand, the perils of fighting as dirty as our enemies do, but on the other hand, the moral and real costs of betraying foreign surrogates by failing to back them up.

Littell does a magnificent job of plausibly placing his characters close to turning points of the Cold War, tying it all together and resolving it within the contexts of their lives. For spy or historical fiction buffs, this book is as good as it gets.

11 people found this helpful

Great the 5th time as well

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Amazon Customer

June 2, 2018

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

I first encountered The Company as an audiobook and thought it was terrific then. Smack anyone who offers spoilers - Littell is such a Craftsman that you really won't see the best twists coming until you realize they were inevitable. I told my son's that reading this is one of the single best ways to get a genuine feel for the Cold War - mainly from the US side of course, but with empathetic characters like Lily, it's broader. This is a very long book but give it a chance to transport you to the front lines of a strange and fascinating time.

Close to history and very well writen

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Most recent customer reviews

san roman

Good novel

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Mark

Worth Reading

Really interesting novel that is constructed around real events like Bay of Pigs and Hungarian Revolution.

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mbean

One of the best historical fiction novels wver

Great read.

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Camlogry

What can I say. Enjoyed every page!

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Bob G

excellent

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ziggy

Great story. Sounds like Mr. Littell knows the inner workings of the CIA.

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