Rating: 
Summary: A Stern Warning about the Reviews for this Book
Review: 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
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not deserving of 900+ pages of your time
Review: It started with a bang and the Berlin section reminded me of Cold War Le Carre. Eventually, however, it becomes a bit of a let down as the dialogue degenerates to Clancy level. And the continual plot device whereby all of the significant actions occurring in the 50 year history of the CIA involved just 3-4 agents (and their kids) just seemed more and more forced. All in all, diverting and a good yarn that filled my vacation, but not something to seek out.
Rating:
Summary: The American John Le Carre
Review: Robert Littell proves, once again, that he is the connoisseur of the American spy novel. In "The Company", he presents us with more than just a glimpse of a culture, or better yet, a fraternity, that has no written history for any of us to review. He deftly mixes real life heroes and real life villans with excellently written fictious heroes and equally well written villans. Some of his fictional characters represent real people. That's what makes this book so compelling to read. It is close to 900 pages long and yet, when you are done, he leaves you longing for more. While reading it, it just doesn't seem like 900 pages. An almost family affair, we see a generational history of the CIA depicted through characters both real and imagined. Littell shows us both the CIA "successes", such as the defeat of the movement to overthrow Gorbachev, to its failures, such as the Bay of Pigs and the Hungarian revolution in 1956. He gives us keen insights into many of these events. One will recall vividly the people escaping from Hungary who, literally, followed in each others footprints, so as to throw off their numbers from the pursuing Soviets. Or the comment from Bobby Kennedy following the Bay of Pigs disaster, where the new Administration needs a victory and, looking to a small backwater in the far east, he predicts, "Vietnam could be the answer to our prayers". This even as his brother, the President states, "Vietnam is too far away. No one will notice." But it's not just the history or the historical tidbits - such as how many different ways were proposed to kill Castro, including botulism in his cigars, LSD in his home ventilating systems, or exploding sea shells where he went skin diving - it is often the description of the human side where Littell excels. For example, the agent, who upon capture, reflects on the measure of "liberation" in that exposure is no longer to be dreaded. Or the Company wife who shouts to her husband, "One of the reasons I hate it (the CIA) is because you love it!" Littell deftly takes us on this journey from 1956 Berlin to the present. Robert Hanssen is here, even though he is not a Company man and we also see how monies are poured into the career of a former KGB man who becomes deputy mayor of St. Petersburg - Vladimir Putin. Littell takes us on this ride and we never feel the bumps. Well done. Easily the best book of the year.
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun but with a caveat
Review: Mr. Littell has written a book that is an interesting history of the CIA thinly diguised as fiction. Unfortunately the fun part comes in picking out the factual errors in the text. As previous reviewers have mentioned, Mr. Littel has not checked his facts very well. Already mentioned have been the train from New York to Washington leaving from Grand Central and not Penn Station, the Washington Metro operating in 1974 (it was not opened until 1976) and winds off the Tidal Basin being felt on Connecticut Avenue (A good trick due to the distance). But the error I would like to point out is spoken by a character in 1956 who remarks to another "how are things inside the Beltway?". Sorry Mr. Littell, the Washington Beltway was not opened until 1964. It is these infuriatingly small factual errors that keep me from giving this book more stars. Shame on you Mr. Littell. This is a good yarn ruined by a lack of research.
Rating:
Summary: Real Spy Thriller
Review: If you are a fan of Le Carre, then buy this novel. It reads great without being dumbed down for the reader. It pretty much covers the entire history of the CIA with a compelling set of subplots mixed in for good measure. Don't be scared off by the length.
Rating:
Summary: Long, uneven, but mostly interesting
Review: "The Company" starts out LeCarre-ish with introductions of "The Sorcerer" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," in noir scenes of Berlin in 1950. After having introducted these two main characters the author abandons his literary pretensions and proceeds thereafter to tell a straight forward -- partly based on fact, partly fictionalized -- tale of the CIA from 1950 to 1991. The long search for the mole in the CIA is the heart of the story and it's well done. But skip the section on Afghanistan. It just doesn't ring true --the author has too many trees in what is almost a treeless country for one thing. The moral regeneration of the villain toward the end is mawkish and the account of the sinister, mysterious decades-long KGB plot called KHOLSTHOMER -- which underlies the book from beginning to end -- starts slow and tapers off to nothing. Don't bother trying to figure KHOLSTHOMER out. The two main characters, the Sorcerer and his apprentice, could have been very interesting if the author had focused more on deepening their lives and characters and less on a panoramic view of the CIA. Smallchief
Rating: 
Summary: Stars & Stripes forever
Review: It's a shame that the CIA is belittled by this book considering the fact that it's the CIA along with our military that put their lives on the line day in and day out so that we can live in a safer country and world. Shame on Robert Littell. I'm not sure what his background is, but I'd like to see him in the shoes of the CIA operatives that risk their lives so that he can live comfortably mocking them.
Rating:
Summary: Fatal Flaw
Review: Littell portrays a CIA that despite all it bumblings manages somehow to end up on the winning side of the Cold War. Littell goes to great lengths to "martyrize" the Leo and Yvgeny characters while denigrating the characters of the CIA. He ignores the basic truth of the CIA. If they do their job well, no one will ever know they have done anything at all. He spotlights the more public failings. He raises the Russian figures to mythical status. CIA failing are ineptness, KGB failings are because of betrayal or fate. Littell hangs out the dirty laundry of the CIA. There are stars on the wall at Langley and each one represents an agent lost doing his duty. This book is an insult to the memory of the men who stood guard on a lonely frontier. I take issue with the portrayal of the drunken, naive, overvealous cowboy image of the CIA operatives. I take issue with the cool efficiency and meticulous performance of the KGB operatives. One must wonder how we won with this cast of characters. Its good that Littell is living in France, a country that has had to be bailed out or lost every conflict since the American Revolution usually by Britain or America. With their current view on world matters, I'd say Littell and the French deserve one another
Rating: 
Summary: History In A Thriller
Review: Buy the book for the hard-to-put-down story; read it for the spot-on history of the CIA. There is more fact than fiction in this book. Well worth the read - for entertainment and knowledge. Essentially a fast-paced history book, The Company helps put today's intelligence community in its historical context.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding story
Review: This is one of the best "spy" stories I have read in quite awhile. Mr. Littell is one of the best writers of the genre and I have never been dissappointed by any of his books. This is a lengthy story, but one that is hard to put down. The characters are very real and present a side of the spy business that we never see in movies or television. I particularly like the depiction of James Angleton. I read a biography of this man many years ago, and found his character in "The Company" to be true to life. The plot covers a lot of ground, from Berlin in the aftermath of WWII, to the Russian conflict in Afghanistan, with a detailed treatment of the bay of pigs disaster. The story grabs you, however, and moves along well. Once you finish it, you will wish that it had lasted even longer. If you are a fan of spy stories or want to know more about the workings of the CIA, then this is a book you need to read.
| 
