Rating: 
Summary: Filled with...action, humor, suspense and compassion...
Review: (from "The Denver Post") Local author and literary chameleon Dan Simmons has won critical acclaim and ardent readership in a wide variety of genres: horror, science fiction, mainstream. And he's picked up literary awards with the regularity of a champion outfielder shagging fungoes. There seems to be nothing he can't accomplish. So the publication of "The Crook Factory,'' a literary thriller, is sure to win Simmons another batch of readers and place him on the short list for more awards. Joe Lucas, an amoral special agent in the FBI, finds himself assigned to a case that seems designed as punishment. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover has given him the task of keeping tabs on an amateur spy network in Cuba. The network has been named "The Crook Factory'' by its ringleader, none other than Ernest Hemingway. Completely unaware of Hemingway's stature and celebrity as a writer (he doesn't read "make believe'' books), Lucas' perspective and growing awareness of Hemingway is offered through fresh, unspoiled eyes. On reaching Cuba, Lucas is thoroughly unprepared for what he finds. In Hemingway, he discovers a braggart who embellishes every life story - a writer who, despite an awareness of his own talent, constantly questions his own worth. After joining Hemingway's eight-man spy network, Lucas discovers a spiderweb of Machiavellian schemes involving the intelligence agencies from three different countries that could affect the outcome of World War II. Worse, Lucas learns that Hemingway's "crook factory'' has uncovered a vital piece of intelligence that puts all of them in mortal danger and calls into question the loyalty of operatives in his own agency. Unsure of his own sources (or who might be behind the American side of the conspiracy), Lucas partners with Hemingway in a perilous venture to get to the bottom of the mystery. Unlike most of his other novels, "The Crook Factory'' is not filled with the usual subtexts and symbols that make reading Simmons' novels such a rich experience, which isn't to say that this book is empty of intellectual sustenance. On the contrary, it is full of musings on abusive government and bureaucracy, and there are ruminations on the act of creative writing - passages that do not seem out of place, given that Hemingway is a central figure. Here, the writing legend coaches Lucas on the fine points of his craft: "You can't just transcribe things from the outside in; that's photography. You have to do it the way Cezanne did, from inside yourself. That's art.'' The difference between this novel and most of Simmons' others can be likened to Graham Greene's "serious'' novels like "Brighton Rock'' and "The Quiet American,'' and his "entertainments - "Our Man in Havana,'' "The Confidential Agent.'' The precision of plot and writing is no less facile, with the difference lying only in the depth of the subject matter. "The Crook Factory'' is a remarkable blend of fact and fiction. As Simmons testifies in an afterword, 95 percent of the events are true. What's more, Gary Cooper, Marlene Dietrich, Ian Fleming and many other notables make appearances in this lively story. In the end, what resonates deepest are the characters: Joe Lucas, who goes through a moral and emotional transformation; and, most especially, Hemingway. Capturing a historical persona within the confines of a novel is no easy task, but Simmons does an incredible job. Readers will come away from the tale feeling as if they actually lived alongside the great writer. "The Crook Factory'' exemplifies the sort of fiction that Hemingway held in high esteem, writing that is "truer than true.'' Propelled by a downhill pace that rarely lets up, "The Crook Factory'' is filled with just the right amount of action, humor, suspense and compassion, producing a tale that will echo in the mind long after the last page has been turned. (from The Denver Post, Feb. 1999).
Rating: 
Summary: More chiller than thriller!
Review: ... I think the Hyperion books were some of the best sci fi ever written. Creative, well-written, entertaining, thoughtful. When Simmons gets closer to home, he just can't weave the spell. Fires of Eden was startlingly weak for someone who has achieved what he has elsewhere. Crook Factory is almost as bad. In fact, it's suprising that anyone could make a story as intrinsically interesting as this one into something as boring, hackneyed, and unbelievable as this is.It's possible that the Hemingway stuff is well-researched. The author has clearly bothered to find out NOTHING about the spy business now or any other time, and not even bothered to try and come up with a believable main character. ...On the idea that it's 95% true: I'm willing to believe the worst of Hoover's FBI--but since the 5% he doesn't claim is true is the accusation that Hoover sold important intelligence to the Germans is so very unbelievable he and the reviewers should probably soft-pedal the idea that this is really "faction"....
Rating:
Summary: A genre bending tour de force
Review: Focusing on an unexplored corner of Hemingway's life, Simmons combines a spy story with an historical novel which I read straight through. He creates characters we can identify with and care about at the same time that he acquaints us with a fully textured portrait of Hemingway and insights into J. Edgar Hoover and his FBI. Simmons is one of the few writers that can create a compelling story in any genre he chooses. I have read every book he has written. Crook Factory is of the same caliber as the others I put at the top of his work: Phases of Gravity, Hyperion, Summer of Night, and Children of the Night. FBI agent Joe Lucas, the story telling main character, is someone I want to know more about. Cameo appearances by Ian Fleming, Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergmann and Marlene Dietrich set just the right atmosphere for a stylish spy story. And the action scenes are riveting. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Real Spys Versus Real Men
Review: Hemingway always liked to present an image of being a 'man's man', and the side of him that acutely observed and recorded those around him and their swirling tide-pool of emotions was normally hidden from view. Simmons, delving deep into the minutia of what is known about the man, managed to catch this ambivalence in this spy-vs-spy novel. Hemingway's braggart, macho face is clearly in evidence, but also much that is deeper: his genuine feelings for his children (and his 'children' were a much larger group than his biological family), his own realistic opinion of both his own and other's writing abilities, his fears and depressions, his charismatic presence, his dominance of almost any group he was part of, his real appreciation of what excellent art is, his total arrogance towards those whom he felt did not meet his standards. Beyond this fine character portrait, we find a plot that seemingly came strictly from the land of make-believe, that is until you look at the documented facts surrounding the creation and operation of Hemingway's contribution to the WWII effort, his self-named Crook Factory. Nominally a strictly amateur counter-espionage group, which should have occupied the attention of the Washington bureaucrats for all of two minutes, is instead shown here to be the focus of not one but at least four professional intelligence-gathering organizations. Simmons weaves a finely complicated tale within the documented facts, some of which paint a very frightening picture of certain American organizations, and which become even more frightening in light of certain recently passed legislation allowing these organizations even more effectively unsupervised power. In Simmons' hands the facts and the fiction meld to become a nice who-is-really-who thriller, a ball of twine that Simmons carefully unravels and knits into shapes that continue to intrigue till the very climax of this work. Simmons' style is a long ways from Hemingway's, normally a pretty basic utilitarian prose that does a decent job of presenting the story, but not exceptional. In a few spots, however, he caught something of Hemingway's inimitable ability to describe far more than just what the objective words on the page relay. These moments are few, though, and in many places I felt he presented too much mind-boggling detail of marginal relevance to the main story, regardless of how well these details are documented. These details in many places somewhat spoil the pacing of this otherwise well-wrought thriller. Simmons also includes an epilogue, just to tie up all the loose ends. As he says himself within it, this is a bad idea. He had a perfectly good finish without the epilogue, and its inclusion merely weakens the overall impact of the work. A good, enthralling read, with some nasty implications for today's world, although perhaps not the absolute top-flight work Simmons has exhibited in such works as Hyperion. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
Rating:
Summary: Fasinating! Profound! Creative! Simply Wonderful!
Review: I have read just about all of Dan Simmons's writings and the Hyperion books are top-notch science fiction. His horror books easily surpass anyone in that field, including Stephen King but I have read 261 pages of The Crook Factory and had to lay it aside. The only action so far has been the murder in a whorehouse in Havana of a radio operator for a spy ship. A lot of time was spent by the author in researching this book and I am sure it appeals to those readers who enjoy a good spy yarn but it is not my thing. I may read the rest of this book someday when I am retired and have lots of time on my hands but I am in no great hurry to see how it turns out.
Rating:
Summary: Such a fine book with such a flaw...
Review: I really liked the novel. It moves FAST, the personae are detailed and lifelike, the settings ring true... The only problem I had was that Simmons decided to go the easy way and poke some fun at Hoover's obsession with Communist spies. The sad fact is that, far from overreacting, the FBI in Hoover's time did nowhere nearly enough to counter that threat. The declassified Soviet and US files are damning enough, and good historical books were already available when Mr. Simmons was writing his novel. I'd recommend "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America" by John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and "The Secret World of American Communism (Annals of Communism Series)" by Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes (Contributor), Fridrikh I. Firsov, Timothy D. Sergay (both volumes from Yale Books) to set the record straight. As I said, this is a very good novel of its kind. It just suffers from a perspective defect.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good story but too slow and too long
Review: J Edgar Hoover wants FBI agent Joe Lucas (half Hispanic and a proven killer) to join the famous writer Ernest Hemmingway in Cuba who has offered to run a spy ring against the Germans in 1942. J Edgar knows Hemmingway to be charming and warns Joe not to fall under Hemingway's spell. Joe (writing throughout the book in the first person) knows there's lots more to his function than keeping the local amateur Keystone Kops out of trouble and focuses on finding out J. Edgar's true motive while trying to keep from enjoying too much the stimulation and relaxation afforded by being at Hemmingway's farm, thre first he's had in many a year. This is very good historical fiction. Hemmingway actually did offer to spy on the Germans in Cuba as well as track German submarines dropping off spys in Cuban waters. His involvement in this period was chronicled by him in his bittersweet "novel" "Islands in the Stream" and William Granger's "Hemmingway's Notebook" and others. As a sidenote: I found most of "Islands in the Stream" to be a delightful movie with George C. Scott in one of his two best roles, Claire Bloom, Gilbert Roland and the wonderful rascal David Hemmings. Alfred Hitchcock once said (paraphrasing him) "A movie is like life with the boring parts taken out". This book left the boring parts in. While the characterizations are first rate (except for Hemmingway being somewhat stereotyped) and the attention to historical detail is admirably researched, there's just too much that isn't necessary in this 576 pages. The pages that describe the detail of what happened while waiting for something else to happen, didn't help the book. I certainly enjoyed how well Simmons described the American characters with the culture of 60 years ago as my parents related to me long ago. Too many books seem to get lazy as they describe characters from 50, 100 or more years ago as if they had today's values, mores, language and goals. Simmons doesn't fall into that trap. He does fall into a celebrity trap by bringing in Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman, Marlene Dietrich and Ian Fleming. Their intoduction to the story didn't seem necessary and added clutter. The action scenes are well done and not overly confusing. However Joe eventually confirms he has more to fear from his own agency than he does from the Germans. Joe is shown to be very clever with a "photographic" memory. I believe the book would have been better if it focused more on Joe's ability to solve ongoing mysteries than on historical accuracy. Recommended but not a "must read" book.
Rating:
Summary: Hemingway, Nazis and the FBI
Review: What's not to like???
Fun novel that takes a fictional stab at what Hemingway was doing some of the time while living in Cuba.
If you like Simmons other books, beware it's not in his usual genre.
If you have an open mind (or, just like good historical fiction with a crime/mystery/spy twist) then you will enjoy this outing.
I also highly recommend Darwin's Blade and the Kurtz novels from Mr. Simmons. They are good reads as well.
Rating:
Summary: Great Mix of World War II Espionage and a Man Called Papa
Review: When I found Dan Simmons' "The Crook Factory" a few months ago, I thought that the concept sounded intriguing but flawed. I never once believed that Simmons could pull off a solid historical fiction novel involving espionage and Ernest Hemingway. Not being a big reader of Hemingway I thought that getting through this 562-page novel was going to take a monumental effort. I was pleased with the style and easy Simmons used to put these two together. Simmons also shows great versatility in mixing the spy writing with delicate illustrations of the writer in 1940s Havana. I found the pages flying by as the Simmons laid out one of the most concise story I've read in sometime. The novel starts with FBI agent Joe Lucas getting a new assignment from J. Edgar Hoover. The assignment is to go to Cuba and watch Ernest Hemingway and his thrown together group of counter-espionage "The Crook Factory". Lucas joins the group as an intelligence liaison for Hemingway and finds "The Crook Factory" is nothing but a bunch of local friends and athletes that Hemingway knows. Hemingway believes that there are German U-boats in the Caribbean and wants to destroy one of them. After some searching the factory starts receiving transmissions that indeed there are U-boats and their use is to land German spies. "The Crook Factory" and the Germans play little war games until slowly Simmons let you see all the underhand deals and double agent trickery that is truly being played out. I really enjoyed this little jaunt into World War II espionage and the little peek into the life of Hemingway. Simmons paints a picture of Hemingway that is truly believable and convincing. By no means does he glorify the writer or embellish on his not so nice parts, which is the flaw of most historical fiction writers. The novel is a bit lengthy and the chapters that cover FBI files and history of all the characters may not be for everyone, however I find this only a minor flaw. A true gem for those who enjoy novels set in World War II.
Rating: 
Summary: Yawwwwwn
Review: Without eulogising profusely in a vain attempt to be a (wannabe) critic of contemporary literature - because afterall, that it isn't my profession - I can state "this is simply one of the best books I've ever read." It stays with me, and I reminisce about the subjects, the plots, the sub-plots, and the strength of character (and characters) "The Crook Factory" portrays. What makes this book most fascinating, for me, is the fact it draws on a depth of historical evidence; it served as my introduction to Ernest Hemingway (the principal character, of whom I previously only had the most obscure of pictures), and paints a kaleidoscope of colour regarding WW2 Cuba, the intricacies of latter day espionage, the jingoism of Hoover's "anti-commie" administration, and the powerful (if somewhat eccentric) motivation of the human spirit. I bought "The Crook Factory" on the strength of previously read work by Simmons, namely the space opera "Hyperion" series - which again harbours a place of affection in my memories - but I was totally unaware of the diversity of this mans writing style; he has a true ability to draw the reader in, and serve up the choicest of narrative from the menu. So, whilst I have no active interest in historical fiction, I'm glad I stumbled on this particular book and would strongly recommend it as a purchase for anyone who takes delight in a good read, whatever genre they normally gravitate towards. As an afterthought - the edition I read also featured the first few pages of Simmons' "Darwins Blade" which I currently have on order as I type this review. I dare say, having not been disappointed by his work thus far, I don't expect to be let down in the near future (and I plan on reading more of his work as soon as possible)...
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