The Sisters

Rating:
Summary: The sisters Death and Night
Review: In the wake of Littell's bestseller, "The Company," Overlook has reissued three of Littell's Cold-War novels, classics of sly black humor and switchback, labyrinthine plotting. These include his first, "The Defection of A.J. Lewinter" (1973), about a low-level American scientist who defects to the Russians - or does he? Then his 1990 novel, "The Once and Future Spy," pits the CIA against the CIA in a twisted tale of dirty tricks and history.

But "The Sisters," a conspiracy of conspiracies, is the apex of Littell's diabolical wit. Plotting is the vocation of the title characters, Francis and Carroll, old CIA hands, known to their leery colleagues as "the sisters Death and Night" (Walt Whitman), and the story opens with their obscure and hilarious conception of "the perfect crime." They are too careful - communicating in cryptic written notes which are shredded at day's end - to let anyone, including the reader, in on what this crime might entail, but its instrument is a Russian sleeper - an unactivated spy living secretly as an American.

To find him, the Sisters must suborn the Potter, a disgraced and retired KGB officer, the former head of the Russian sleeper school. His last and best pupil, the one the Sisters seek, is also the son he never had. But, between threats and bribes, the Potter betrays him, as he knows he will. The action picks up as the Potter flees Russia and then his CIA "protectors" in order to intervene and stop his protégé from committing the crime that will reverberate around the world.

Narrative shifts among the various characters - the Sisters, the Potter, a Cuban assassin whose role remains a mystery until things are well advanced, a couple of Russian masterminds, a pair of Canadian assassins and the debonair, reluctant, but well-taught young Sleeper - all of them plotting and counterplotting.

As a number of these chase each other across the country, Littell's black wit and deft storytelling keep the pages turning. The Potter, a hapless, likeable fellow, despite his cold-bloodedly ruthless side, acquires a civilian sidekick and the reader's sympathies. As the story comes together with a bang, first-time readers will gasp at Littell's masterfully inclusive cynicism and readers familiar with the twists will marvel again in sheer appreciation. This is a conspiracy fan's uber-conspiracy.

Rating:
Summary: Great Look at a Familiar Event
Review: This is a great read. The characters are well developed and colorful. The story takes a familiar event and adds surprising plot twists. This book made me want to read MORE of Littell.