Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for Wannabe Spies
Review: Anyone who has ever dreamed of going undercover and handling state secrets has got to read this book. Littel avoids the predictability found in many of today's so-called suspense/mystery novels; just when you think you've got part of it figured out, something new is revealed to keep you guessing. The story is all the more believable because it covers such a vast period of time, reminding younger readers that what happened in the not-so-distant past has continuing repercussions.
Rating: 
Summary: Good story; weak writing
Review: Littell spins a good yarn, but he can't write dialogue to save his life. The inanities and cliches he puts in his characters' mouths are groan-producing and virtually destroy any sense of reality he creates with his plotting.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing! 10 Stars...
Review: It's hard to sustain tone and reader interest through 894 pages, but Littell pulls it off with amazing grace. A 50-year tour d'horizon of the CIA and those who toil in its vineyards. Littell is a terrific author with some great books (starting with The Defection of A.J. Lewinter, still his best) and a few mediocre ones along the way. This one is his longest and most ambitious work and he pulls it off in a masterful fashion. I don't usually like books this long, but found myself wishing this one were longer so I could keep reading. It adds a dimension if you are a spy or spy novel fan and know a lot about the CIA and American history since 1945, but even if you don't have that background this is a terrific read. Great stuff. Buy it and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: A Disappointing Book
Review: The best thing I can say about this book is that it hyas plenty of action sequences, most of which are quite well done. Most of the writing is flat, however, and the characters cartoonish. The heroes come out of a boys adventure book with a few sex scenes added, presumably to make them seem adult. The villans are pure evil. It is not enough,for example, that the Soviet spy-master is working for a vicious dictatorship, he has to be an anti-semic abuser of prebubescent girls. (He refers to them as his nieces and addresses them as "girlies.") Furthermore, for a novel that's supposedly based on historical facts, the author gets many of them wrong. One blatant example is having a character take a train from Grand Central Station to Washington, D.C. instead of from Pemmsylvania Station. A small matter, perhaps. But I I can't trus an author in minor matters, hoe can O trust him in major ones? There are many other more impportant errors and omissions having to do with historical characters. President Reagan, for instance, is portrayed as an amiable moron. And as much as he discusses the motivations and background or the British traitor,"Kim" Philby, he never once mention's the possible influence of his father, St. John Philby, a legendary figure in the British Foreign Service. It was he, by the way, and not "Kim's" colleagues in MI6. who gave "Kim" that nickname after the hero of Kipling's novel about "the Grear Game." There is much else to say, but why go on. If one want's an easy action read, this can be it. But for a serious novel of espionage, stick with le Carre, McCarry, Furst, or even Len Deighton.
Rating:
Summary: A long Trip Down Memory Lane to Nowhere
Review: I wanted to like this book. I wanted it to live up to it seeming potential. In the end this novel was a waste of time and a disappointment. This is a big book that traces the lives of a group of CIA operative from the post-War era to the present. Littel sets the story, covers the details, and gets you interested. The next thing you know Littel has spun out some amateurish and unbelieveable plot line, complete with factual mistakes and details that don't ring true. Littel is a reasonably talented writer who just can't tell a story or who doesn't really have a story to tell. To compare him to LeCarre or even Alan Furst is just plain wrong. The Company is just a waste of time. Too bad. This could have turned out to be a hell of a book in the hands of a better writer.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, suspenseful novel
Review: From the buzz I had heard about this book, I had been expecting a classic in the genre. What I found was a flawed but generally good spy novel that is one of the better of its type, though not one of the best.A semi-historical novel that follows the CIA from its inception to the end of the Cold War, The Company focuses on three particular characters - Ebby, Jack and Leo - as they rise in the ranks and get involved with major Cold War events such as the Hungarian uprising of 1956 and the Bay of Pigs. There is not much of a plot as Littell is more interested in writing episodic history than telling a single story. The one true plot string deals with a mole within the CIA known as SASHA who foils various company efforts. Littell is good with suspense and creates likable (or villainous) enough characters, but he is not perfect. He has a tendency to repeat himself and introduces elements into the story that go nowhere; in particular, a minor character known as the Calabrian contributes little to the book and is, in fact, unneeded. Overall, however, this is a good book and fans of the more realistic spy novels (such as Follett or Deighton as opposed to Ludlum or Fleming) will find this a pleasant, worthwhile read.
Rating:
Summary: FANTASTIC!
Review: This bok is fantastic. It is a real spy thriller/historic masterpiece. How the book incorporates real life people and fictional is amazingly enhoyable. I'm a huge fan of the history of intelligence agencies and this was a great read of not only fiction but history. BUY THIS BOOK, it's worth the money. It might take a while to read, but it's well worth it.
Rating:
Summary: Not the best book ive ever read, but my all time favorite
Review: Well since i think everyone else covered my great opinions on the book, ill keep this short and simple, i loved this book all the way through, especially being an aspiring intelligence officer, it gave me some insight into the "cowboy days" of CIA. This is definately an entertaining book w/ both fiction and non-fiction mixed in, so do yourself a favor and BUY THIS BOOK.
Rating:
Summary: The Quitessential CIA Primer on past mistakes/triumphs
Review: I find myself wondering how much of this elaborate story was weaved upon history and how much on imagination. In general I am not much of reader of spy novels. I was more interested in the inner workings of the CIA. This is exactly what Littell has accomplish with this epoch tale of the country's foremost intelligence agency. He includes the good and the bad, and in
the end it is sometimes difficulty to distinguish the two, as
in life. The saying goes, if we don't study history and learn from it, then we are doomed to repeat it.
Rating:
Summary: Wow and Whew!
Review: I was pleasantly impressed by the book, the author and my ability to actually finish the book in less than a year! The story is very complex and intricate, but very easy to follow once you understand the rythym of the book. The characters were very easy to undetstand, except the mole, but were complex in their own unique way. I just wish there was so much jumping between eras. I wanted to know more about the characters in-between the various historical events the book is based around.
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