Rating: 
Summary: Too much text, too little story.
Review: Maybe an editor could have saved "The Company". Certainly an editor would have caught some of the numerous typographical errors. Probably he would have cut down on the number of times a given phrase was repeated verbatim by disparate characters. Maybe he would have prevented Littell from falling into the trap of the researcher who feels the need to include every tidbit of trivia his research turned up in the final work. Per chance the lapses in proper American dialect -- which may or may not have resulted from Littel's living in France -- would have been fixed. Even then, the other problems could only have been solved by an editor of real quality, if an editor could have handled them at all. Certainly the book's theme deserves a better telling, as Littell has attempted to novelize the entire history of the CIA. Perhaps the Forrest Gump-like need to make the main characters major players in each of the major events in that history need not have been forced, but the ham-fisted manner in which it is accomplished is more painful than pleasant. The characters are simplistic - most notably in the Chester Gould-ian (Dick Tracy) decision to provide the "bad guy" with an altogether unnecessary, illogical, and unused evil tendency - and simple-minded. The plot lines, even recognizing the limitations of the quasi-historical novel, are even more simple and simply handled. The sheer number of possible solutions never even considered by the characters and never playing a role in the work suggest that the former is due not to an attempt to demonstrate the characters' fallibility so much as from the author's lack of imagination. The idea of making an historical novelization of the CIA is certainly an ambitious one, and one worthy of a better treatment than it receives here.
Rating: 
Summary: An Amazing work of Fiction?
Review: Every once in awhile, a large book comes along that just grabs you and you can't put it down. Other examples of this would be Stephen King's The Stand, Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, and Pat Conroy's Beach Music. This is the first great epic of the twenty first century. I was into this book from the very beginning. I would love to know how much of this book is based on fact and how much comes from the author's imagination, but regardless, this book rocked. Even though most readers probably know how events like the Bay of Pigs turn out, that really doesn't matter. The book is written so well and the characters are so interesting that you want to read more. Sometimes stories such as these have so many characters that it is easy either to get them confused, or to just not care about them. That is not the case here, because one, they are just interesting, and two, many times it is the children of the original characters who wind up taking over the jobs of their parents. I can not say enough good things about this book. If you enjoy the Cold War period of our country's history, you have to read this book. You will not be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Fine Schematic With an Oliver Stone Look at Details
Review: There is no question that Robert Littell did a huge amount of research and writing to produce this fictional megaepic of the CIA. Given the level of sophistication of generations not born yet when most of the principal characters joined the Agency, Littell may well emerge as the Oliver Stone of CIA literature. Some reviewers are impressed that NAMES are used - Bill Casey, Adrian Philby, Jim Angleton, Howard Hunt, etc. I found those characters - excepting "Mother" as Angleton was known - far less impressively drawn than such as the traitorous Leo Kritzky, pedophile Starik, the CIA Berlin Station chief, "Sorcerer", and even the chronically ill Andropov. And the latter was based on fact.
For the reader not well versed in Cold War intelligence matters, the book is a sweeping overview fleshed out with Littell's imagined details. Many of those details are less than accurate or even credible - say the farewell dinner in Heidelberg for Albanian agents about to be parachuted into their homeland, escape off the Bay of Pigs-side beach by a CIA officer liasing with the Cuban exile brigade, and ability to withstand "Mother's" torture by the fouled toilet water-drinking Kritzky.
Some readers will be enthralled by the details. But others may finish the book and wonder why it took nearly 900 pages for the Soviets to launch their incredible defense to a U.S. move that Andropov imagines is about to occur. Given its ending, a reader may also wonder why the novel lasted longer than the Cold War.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Story of The CIA
Review: This is a fabulous historical novel of the CIA showing all of it's successes and failures with an analysis of the driven desire by some men and women to serve their country, regardless of the consequences to their personal safety. The book provides a hightened respect for the agency and one must believe, from the extensive research, that most of the events are based on fact. And what story it is! Don't be deterred by the size. It is both literally, and figuratively, hard to put down.
Rating:
Summary: Enough to Spook You.
Review: Clandestine and covert operations, espionage and spying, shadow boxing with the Chinese or the North Koreans, and other things that go bump in the night. And as far as spooks go, Caspar the Friendly Ghost has got nothing on the boys from the CIA. Secrets are what we most want to hear; secret things are what the "gray people" at CIA do best. We want to be on the inside and Robert Littell stands ready to let us in. It stands to reason that "The Company" would have broad appeal. This book is basically a fictionalized version of Bob Woodward's "Veil" published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. in 1987. In Woodward's "Veil" we got a snapshot of the CIA from 1981 to 1987. While "The Company" is broader in scope, the story covers a time period from 1950 to 1991. I assume that much of Mr. Littell's fiction is based on fact. Although William Casey is mention in the book, I saw Littell's character E. Winstrom Ebbitt II as former CIA chief William Casey, who also left a successful New York law practice to join the CIA. Not knowing if it were fact or fiction I had to laugh at one of the CIA's hair-brained ideas. The plan was to drop thousands of jumbo sized condoms, from planes, flying over Russia. The label on the condom read "medium." The objective of the plan was to demoralize the Russian women. I chuckled because the planners must not know that the women in Russia already suffer from low self-esteem. Even without the help of the CIA. So what was the point? In John le Carre's "The Perfect Spy" he wrote, "In every operation there is an above the line and a below the line. Above the line is what you do by the book. Below the line is how you do the job." That is stock CIA, and that is the essence of Littell's "The Company. Robert Littell, a journalist and author of over ten books, has given us a well-told and well-researched story. His style has been likened to le Carre. I don't agree, Robert Littell is his own writer. Highly recommended. Cammy Diaz
Rating:
Summary: He's the King of spy novels
Review: Since the publication of the extremely wonderfull novel, The defection of A.J. Lewinter, back in the seventies, the litterature about espionage hasn't been the same. John le Carré is a weak shadow in the light from John Littell, journalist, novelist and philosopher. In Walking Back the Cat and The visiting Professor he's an astonishing writer -- no one can do it better -- I thought. But, then, one could, anyway: Himself, in this epic work about the Central Intelligence Agency he's outdoing himself and that's an achievement of great proportions. You laugh, you cry, but you'r all the time absorbed in the atmoshere so true, created on a lot of facts and mended in Robert Littels wonderfuld mind. He's the Master, indeed.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant-A Book For Our Current Times
Review: As soon as I saw Robert Littell's name, I knew "The Company" would be a wonderful read in espioniage, beyond LeCarre, etc. (I still have on my bookshelf one of his earlier books (1973) "The Defection of A.J. LeWinter".) Congratulations on a wonderful book that will bring another generation updated on the real world of international affairs. No, I am not a member of the spy community, but I have lived through several generations, and I can attest that he knows from what he writes. Bravo Mr. Littell.
I can't imagine how many years/hours it may have taken you to bring this book together, but it was worth it. From a reader, thanks.
Rating: 
Summary: Littell Gives a Supermarket Tabloid Account of the CIA
Review: Purporting to give a novelized version of the CIA, this effort is no better than a tabloid version of America's intelligence
outfit .Missing are the terrific CIA coups- bribing union leaders and politicians and businessmen;using CIA guys and women as reporters and vice versa ;publishig magazines and newspapers ;subsidizing writers;
inventing fake yarns for gullible readers;creating secret companies such as Air America,etc.etc.etc.Littell's novel can only pass the time for folks who get their information from trashy newspapers,magazines and other novels .
Rating:
Summary: Complete Historical Context
Review: Robert Littell has written some of the best books in this genre but for some reason he does not seem to have the audience of a LeCarre, a Ludlum, and others. If you enjoy any of the well known and widely read of this type you will certainly enjoy this man's work. "The Company", is a massive work of almost 900 pages, it still reads well and is in no way ponderous or excessive. As many books seem to continually shorten it is a pleasing exception that Mr. Littell took all the time and pages he needed to tell his story. To any readers of Cold War novels all of the topics that are covered in this book will be familiar but not unwelcome. This book covers a very large portion of the CIA'S existence and presents familiar events as part of a continuum as opposed to focusing on a single event like The Bay Of Pigs, Kennedy, Suez, etc in isolation. There are very good books on all of these topics both documentary and in the form of novels. This work places them all in a larger continual historical context as well as a more realistic one. These historical events did not take place in solitary or in a vacuum, they were events that were planned and dealt with together with all of the other issues that were at hand for the agency at the time. They were also planned and executed by people who developed and created the atmosphere of the agency with their talents as well as their faults. By presenting the large picture as opposed to an isolated historical event, Mr. Littell gives readers the wide perspective that only an inclusive history can offer. This is a novel and while not appropriate it is tempting to forget that what you are reading contains much truth albeit as presented in the form of literary fiction. Mr. Littell clearly has his favorites and those he thinks little of in terms of the players who conducted the operations at the agency. He gets close to the edge of editorial extreme with some of his depictions but I don't know that he really crossed any lines that readers will find difficult to accept. If you have never read this man's work, this is not only a great place to begin, but also a grand tale told with the appropriate pace.
Rating:
Summary: HYPNOTIC....THE TIME DISAPPEARRED..
Review: THIS BOOK AND MORE PRECISELY THE AUDIO IS THE HOLY GRAIL OF AMERICN CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE STORIES.LIKE PUZO WITH THE GODFATHER LITTEL TAKES YOU INTO A BLACK WORLD OF MURDER AND MAYHEM AND FORCES TO WATCH IT LIKE A MOYH OBSERVING A FLAME.EVERY PAGE WAS FASCINATING.I SPENT 100 HOURS LISTENING TO THE UNABIDGED AUDIO.AND I NEVER WANTED TO COME HOME.THERE WERE TEARS IN MY EYES WHEN THE JOURNEY ENDED,
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