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: Comments on book's portrayal of real people
Review: This is a wonderful novel; of course it is fiction, but it portrays many real people. I worked off and on from 1950 to the early '90s with defense and intel groups,and although my contact with CIA was limited, I have personal views about some of the real people, and here comment on how my views match (or don't) Littell's portrayal. First, though, I must observe that neither CIA nor KGB was consistently as clever as the book portrays; like any large organization, CIA and KGB had very many people who were barely competent, if that, along with some who were superb, so the effectiveness of neither CIA nor KGB was as great as that of some less well-known intel groups in both countries that chose and trained fewer people and did it better. That's not a criticism, just an observation about big organizations. In particular, both CIA and KGB suffered greatly from their habit of posting people to assignments where they couldn't speak or understand the local languages and didn't know local customs and courtesies; I met a few of those in surprising places, and wondered what on earth their bosses thought they could achieve. OK, on to real people.The portrayal of Bissell is perfect: a brilliant, hard-driving, opinionated risk-taker who didn't listen well to the views of others. (By the way, Bissell didn't fall on his sword after Bay of Pigs; he wound up with a responsible job that used his talent where he wouldn't do damage.) Richard Helms was much better than Littell's brief description would imply; Helms was indeed usually cautious, and could be bureaucratic, but he fought fiercely to make his considered judgment heard, and was perhaps the most effective person in CIA for many years. It's unfortunate that Kennedy didn't get Helms' carefully reasoned explanation of why Bay of Pigs wouldn't work; that was pigeonholed before it could get to Kennedy, and Kennedy had not yet learned to ask the questions that would have brought Helms' story to his attention. Casey is well portrayed: a fervent patriot with lousy judgment. It's little known that Adm. Bobby Inman, Casey's deputy between Inman's time as NSA Director and Inman's subsequent career, resigned because some of Casey's operations were unacceptable to Inman. (I know this both from Inman and from others.) Angleton deserves better than the portrayal in this book; he was abrasive, eccentric and paranoid, hated by many CIA people, but he did many good things for CIA besides a few bad things. Angleton did not destroy the capability of CIA's Ops Directorate, although he did do a bit of damage to it. The more serious damage, however, was inflicted later by James Woolsey's well-intentioned but ill-advised starvation of humint to emphasize technical means. Tenet tried to repair this, and humint is getting better again now, but that takes time, and unfortunately wasn't far enough along for the Iraq conflict, so Tenet had to take the fall. Littell portrays the KGB's inability to get the Politburo to recognize the facts of life about Afghanistan; I don't know whether Littell means to imply the CIA had the same problem about Viet Nam, but it did. In the late '60s I asked a senior US intel guy why US intel hadn't laid out for President Johnson the true state of affairs in Viet Nam, and he said, "We did, repeatedly, but he wouldn't listen; he didn't want to hear it." A perennial problem for intel shops is that national leaders (and top military people) often don't want to hear what the intel people have to say, for reasons having to do with problems of policy and of leadership; in the US, CIA and other intel shops often get badmouthed for not providing good analyses when in fact they did, but were ignored. I can think of only two post-WW-II Presidents who listened carefully to intel assessments that cast doubts on the President's policy of the time. I know little about Giancana, but I'm surprised if he was as foulmouthed and ignorant as Littell portrays; the few people I have known who were "managers" in organizations that systematically broke our criminal laws had to deal with the "respectable" world, and behaved in a way acceptable to those they dealt with; they left it to their goons to be grossly uncouth. I noted a couple of very minor errors in Littell's description of routine CIA procedures at Langley, but nothing major. All told, he has achieved a remarkably good book; if my comments above seem to conflict with some of Littell's characterizations, keep in mind that there are many knowledgeable people who would agree with Littell and not with me, or who would disagree with both of us.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best and most all encompassing spy novels ever
Review: This remarkable book captures the history of the CIA during the cold war from it's early days in post W.W.II Berlin to the downfall of the Gorbachev government. The Yugoslavian revolution, the Kim Philby affair, the Bay of Pigs fiasco, as well as the Iran Contra scandal are also covered in some detail. These separate episodes are kept together by a group of CIA operatives that we get to know quite well. As the time frame of the story is in decades, the characters are multigenerational. As is appropriate, we do not get to know these CIA agents intimately but get to know them more by their deeds and their dialogue. Nonetheless, the characters are suffused with a great deal of humanity. We deal with loss of love, death, honor, as well as, what compels an individual to betray their country.
THE COMPANY is one of the longest and biggest books I have ever read. It is also one of the best. If there weren't so many other books to read on my shelves, I am not sure I would have ever wanted it to end. It has been nominated by the CWA for multiple daggers including the Gold Dagger and the Steel Dagger. This bears testimony for the quality of the book in that it is so long, yet the judges were able and willing to get through it. One would be hard pressed to find a better and more all encompassing spy novel than this one.
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.
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