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The Company

Robert Littell

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Nov 03, 2011 Lisa (Harmonybites) rated it did not like it

Shelves: suspense, ultimate-reading-list, fiction, novels, crime, contemporary, mystery

I picked this up because it was on a list of recommended spy thrillers. And once you pick it up, you realize one thing--this is one thick book--894 pages in trade paperback. Now, there are times I can really revel in a sprawling epic book. But the characters better grip me, or I have to find the story believable, and it helps if the style is strong. That would be a "no" on all counts.

The title itself is a strike against it. What I know about the Central Intelligence Agency can fit a thimble seve I picked this up because it was on a list of recommended spy thrillers. And once you pick it up, you realize one thing--this is one thick book--894 pages in trade paperback. Now, there are times I can really revel in a sprawling epic book. But the characters better grip me, or I have to find the story believable, and it helps if the style is strong. That would be a "no" on all counts.

The title itself is a strike against it. What I know about the Central Intelligence Agency can fit a thimble several times over. But one thing I do know from someone who would know--whatever you've heard, the people who work there don't think of themselves as "the Company." They're "the Agency." Then there's the opening chapter. A blurb from the New York Times called the book "a gold mine for true conspiracy theorists." And what do we have? The supposed assassination of John Paul I by a Soviet agent. And good grief, it the security at the Vatican is as bad as that, it's amazing any pontiff lasted a month. If you're going to ladle out whacko conspiracy theories, at least make it more credible than an Oliver Stone film.

And then there's the writing. For one, this is one of those books with really, really intrusive dialogue tagging. It's a common flaw and one I don't notice except when 1) it's really done often and ludicrously--and here it is--this one uses "crabbed" which is a first for me. 2) The book isn't reeling me in. And it wasn't. The characters and the plot just never convinced me the author had a clue. Its Kim Philby (a historical Soviet mole within British Intelligence) was chiefly characterized by a really clunkily depicted stutter. It's CIA "heroes" Jack J. McAuliffe and Harvey "Sorcerer" Torriti were unreal one-dimensional and unengaging (and if they were typical of CIA agents, it's amazing we won the Cold War). Cheesy dialogue, adverb abuse, overwrought descriptions, stock phrases, frequent misspellings and factual errors (particularly dealing with DC...uhm ConEd is New York City's electric service--not DC's phone company) and no ethnic stereotype left behind. Eric Ambler or Alan Furst this guy is not. ...more

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