Rating: 
Summary: A Contrarian View
Review: Having retired with just under 35 years service with CIA, my views of Littel's current book can't be considered unbiased.
First, let me say that the term "The Company" is one that wasn't much used inside the CIA after the early 70s. The name most commonly heard was(and still is) "The Agency". Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
The book's overall plot, a "history" of CIA's sucesses and failures in the Cold War, is well done except that Mr. Littell conveniently avoids a few of our "successes", such as the U-2, SR-71, and intel satellite programs, the war in Laos (the only part of the overall Viet Nam War that the US didn't lose), etc.
My main quibble with this book is the appalling lack of research done by the author on the Washington DC area, and history in general. Examples: There was no Beltway around DC in 1956, there was no "downtown" Springfield, Va or Hilton hotel in 1951, or Tysons Corner suburb in the time used by Littell. And, by the way, Johns Hopkins University is located in Baltimore, not DC. I could go on, but I'll just mention one more glaring error; telephone area codes in the 1950s? Jeez Loueez! There are so many mistakes about Agency components that I would not, even if I could, begin to list them here. Bottom line: not that well done, in my (biased) opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Innocence destroyed, or cynicism validated
Review: Wow. I found myself putting the book down time after time to ponder the significance of what I was reading. An innocent - regarding the US and its policies--will find his (her)naivety seriously compromised, whereas those of us who have had even the slightest contact with the Company will recognize all too readily the uneasy fact that too much of this novel might be true. Although the novel is huge --daunting to those who find many-paged tomes too hard to undertake - the story is such that once started, the reader must to go to the end to discover the truth --if the "truth" can ever be discerned. I found this to be a very disturbing book - well-written, with memorable characters - but I did have to wonder if perhaps the author was making the Company out to be worse than it is (or was) But I didn't wonder much. We have met the enemy, and he is us. A truly remarkable story.
Rating: 
Summary: A great spy thriller with plenty of political intrigue
Review: I confess to not having much experience with the genre of spy novels, but regardless, The Company was immensely satisfying for my first foray into the field. Make no mistake, this book is more like Thirteen Days than it is like James Bond. Littell relies more on the tension of a highly combustible political situation for the drama and excitement in this book, rather than straight on action sequences. For me, this formula worked.The Company takes the reader through a series of events that were typical of the major events of the Cold War: (1) a failed defection; (2) the failed revolution in Hungary; (3) the Bay of Pigs fiasco; and (4) the attempted coup to overthrow Gorbachev. The in-depth looks into the behind-the-scenes events surrounding these historical events, albeit fictional, are still incredibly engrossing and read like non-fiction. And unfortunately, that is one of the book's major failings as well. The characters never rang true for me. The speech patterns of each character is nearly indiscernable from the rest. Dialogue often seems unnatural or forced. While Littell tries to firmly root his story in real world historical events, credulity is strained when we're asked to believe that the same characters who start the book out as friends, eventually rise to take on the most powerful roles in the CIA, all the while placing their children in subservient roles. I don't know if the real CIA encouraged nepotism or not, but this rang hollow for me. What was probably the most unnecessary evil of this book, however, was the many typos that appeared throughout its text. It was really quite maddening. The most egregious was on page 829 where the words "Unites States" appear. A proper editing job would have enhanced my enjoyment of this book immensely. This is not a knock on Littell, but rather, on Overlook Press. Hackneyed editing just make The Company appear amateurish. Otherwise, however, this book was a fine attempt to draw fiction from the Cold War. With the perspective of the 21st Century, Littell shows with great realism what was probably taking place during the post-WWII era in the shadows and behind closed doors. A wonderfully entertaining read.
Rating:
Summary: Southern Oregon reader
Review: I discovered Robert Littell recently when I had read that his first book was considered the standard for spy novels. So, I read it and was favorably impressed and I immediately purchased The Company with the thought of comparing his writing to see if it had changed over the years. To be sure, I was satisfied; his writing style (well researched) is similar--a positive, the story content sufficiently complex and compelling (his way of weaving and overlaying the subplots) and the ending fulfilled my emotional expectations.
Rating:
Summary: A great read, full of action, suspense, and intrigue
Review: As an avid reader of espionage/intelligence books, I thought I'd give this one a try. This is a great book, it is extremely well-written in style similar to Steven King's The Stand that will keep you up late into the night turning pages. It gets very deep into the dark worlds of the KGB and the CIA including many true facts that makes the reader wonder how much research the writer actually did. As aforementioned, you will find the story is based on history and, well, I would say the majority of it is true! But what makes is really enjoyable are the characters and how the story just flows right along - it is very difficult to put down once you begin. Well, I won't ramble on and on. Just get it if you like a great novel.
TO THE SUCCESS OF OUR HOPELESS TASK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: fabulous
Review: Yes, this is a fabulous, entertaining, and engaging story.
The author covers a fictional set of characters through the
history of the CIA, populating the story with real people and
events, and he does a very nice job of integrating the fictional
with the historic.
As a matter of fact, he is so good at presenting his story, there is a down side. The reader who is not fully informed about the true historical facts of the Cold War, especially,
will have a very difficult time distinguishing fact from fiction. The story will be fascinating all the same, but we have to hope the less-informed reader will be encouraged to read
some history and increase the enjoyment of this book.
One reader criticized the author as too much of a "name dropper," a comment I felt unfair--until I read the whole book.
He does drop in famous names constantly, perhaps to unfairly give his story the air and feel of genuine historical perspective, so the reader has to be careful here also to distinguish fact from fiction. His fictional chracters are constantly having lunch with Directors of the CIA, or future Directors, with far more frequency than would have been the case
with new recruits to the service; plus, Presidents of the US and Congressmen and Senators are dropped in periodically.
Another major criticism of the book is that the uninformed reader, after completing the story, would have to conclude the
US lost the Cold War; the book is a constant stream of CIA failures, from post-WWII Europe, through the 1956 Hungarian student uprising, the Bay of Pigs, on through the Soviet-Afghan
war, as well as several stories of Presidential ineptness and weakness.
At the end of the book, we have to remind ourselves that we (the
U.S.) did, after all, win the Cold War.
But, truthfully, the book is very readable and entertaining, and
it is one of the few around that will genuinely be difficult to
put down. This story of some of the people who populated the Cold War was never told in a more compelling manner.
Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Absolute tops for Cold War fiction
Review: I could not wait to read this book, having long considered Littell's earlier book, AN AGENT IN PLACE, one of the best examples of Cold War story telling. So enjoyable did I find this new effort that as I progressed through the book, I began to ration the pages to spread out the enjoyment and make it last. Literate, intelligent and with captivating and compelling characters, I heartily recommend this to those who lived through this era, and to those who wish a refresher or more enlightenment and understnading of the events of those years. The scenes and characters are believable and memorable and are presented with the tension of the Cold War years.
Rating:
Summary: The best book I've ever read...
Review: What an amazing book!!! 'The Company' happened to be the first novel by Robert Littell I've picked up, and I must say that I am now a devoted fan. 'The Company' is awe-inspiring writing into what real spying is like (no James Bond feats here), mixed with a intriquing plot, and many historical references and people. Reading the novel, it is very clear that Littell did his homework. The way he describes the events in Cold War Berlin and Moscow make the reader (or this one anyway) feel like he or she is actually there. One of the most enjoyable elements of this book I found was how attacted I became to the characters as I followed them through their lives. If anyone out there is interested in the Cold War, the CIA, or just looking for a good spy novel I _HIGHLY_ recommend this book. It is by far one of the best novels I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: could't put it down--makes you think
Review: This book is extremely well written, developing a set of usually appealing and always memorable characters and their families, all of whom are, one way or another, involved in the CIA, and situating them throughout the world at different times from post war Berlin through to the present day, in Afghanistan. Historical figures are incorporated into the story to give it texture and heighten the drama. Apart from all this, the book also educates the reader and makes for serious thinking, inasmuch as the cold war incidents described occurred when most of us were simply too young to experience them. The questions implicitly raised about what happened behind the scenes are fascinating. If you like Le Carre, Furth or others in the spy genre, this book is a must read!
Rating: 
Summary: A Real spy history is more interesting
Review: I read a lot of non-fiction spy books (bios, histories, etc.)as well as espionage novels. But I don't read spy fiction in order to learn history but to gain an original and creative insight into the minds and personalities of those who engage in spying. Le Carre, Graham Greene, Charles McCarry, Eric Ambler, Len Deighton or David Ignatius have delivered that (to me, at least). Littell in this very (very) long "A Novel of the CIA" has failed (I haven't read his other novels). This is just a very silly and quite boring stuff, full of many, many factual mistakes (Washington didn't have a subway system in 1974: Mosadegh was not an Arab nationalist) and it's quite embarassing to follow the stories of Littell's set of streotypical characters (a Mossad agent in Berlin who dresses like a Rabi, for example). The only interesting material (about Philby, Angleton, Dallas) is drawn straight from books that any reader of espionage will recognize (Brown and Knightley on Philby, which includes his address in Washington); Grose on Dallas; Mangold and Winks on Angleton). So, there is not a lot of original research here. Now, there is nothing wrong about mixing fact and fiction. Norman Mailer did a good job in "Harlot's Ghost," another "A Novel of the CIA" of developing Angleton's character (as well as others), and Banville has written a literary masterpiece in "The Untouchable" (about Blunt). It just doesn't work here, and as far as the various conspiracy theories in the book... well, I perefer the real nutty fantasies that Delillo (Libra) or Ellroy (American Tabloid) provide us. Littell recycles here a mishmash of explanations for historical events that are the level of a under-developed Oliver Stone. In short, don't waste your time. Life is short. If you want to know about the Cold War, read the real stuff.
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