The Once and Future Spy

I'm a big fan of Littell and it takes no further look than at TOAFS to see why. Essentially, the books is a parallel exposition of a secret operation by clandestine CIA operatives directed at a foreign power and also a look back at a historicql figure we all know, Nathan Hale. The connection to Hale is because of the obsession one of the operatives has with the Hale story. Littell is a huge fan of the "What you think is true is just a surface impression and not at all what is really there: school of writing. Another book of his, The Defection of A.J. Lewinter took that tactic to a dizzying level, and TOAFS is not too far behind. Fake-outs, games within games, and victims walking happily into traps of their own construction are at work throughout this fine work. What makes this a 5 star book is the way Littell tells the Hale story in way never heard before, offering a completely different perspective that causes us to challenge our view of history and what history even is. At the end of the novel, the reader realizes that he did the same thing with the contemporary story. As with TDOFAJL, there's a nice romance in here as well. People who have watched a lot of James Bond movies may think there is nowhere else for the spy story genre to go. Littell proves them dead wrong with this book. HIGHLY recommended.

This book displays Littell's genius at work. No it isn't 900 pages long. Instead it tells a story with eloquence and brevity. What happens when one rogue CIA operation stumbles acorss evidence of another rogue operation? The answer is obvious, a third rogue operation is commenced to plug the leak and find the leaker. That's the gist of the book without giving anyway any spoilers. This book is not going to take a long time to read, but when you turn last page you might ask what happened? Many things, but which were true and which were fiction? Once again Littell proves he is at the top of his game.

A previous reviewer commented that the interwovcen tale of Nathan Hale "detracted" from the overall experience. I'd completely disagree, and found that it created an excellent parallel to the main plotline. He should perhaps re-read and see how it relates. Aside from that, it's a page-turner that I found to be more a conspiracy thriller than a true spy novel (but maybe because he's "reinventing the spy novel" as some of the cover reviews claim). It also felt quite believeable as I can imagine various administrations attempting something along the lines of the scheme occuring in this book.

I read the book 3 years ago and just finished re-reading it yesterday.It has the fairy-tale quality I like so much in works of Cold War era writers - Graham Greene is the perfect example. The mythology is here - or mythologies since the book also deals with a patriot spy of 2 centuries ago. Sometimes the author seems to be unsure of our ability to draw the parallel and elaborates a bit too much on the things that are already evident. But later in the book Robert Littell goes to another extreme - he regretfully overcomplicates the ending, in a rush to make his work a kind of Chinese box - "whose truth? which truth?" - he shies from the possible and feasible happy end - and finishes in a hasty hopelessness. Still the book is very, very good in it's unique way. Highly recommended.

a sometimes bizarre book.Memorable and menacing characters from the best writer of cold war era novels. Impossible to easily define but very satisfying. Action runs between parallel exploration of espionage then and now but thats not the quarter of it. History book, spy novel- one of those 'give it to your friends straight away so you're not alone with the knowledge' books and above all well written. The antidote to all the 'hunt the serial killer'writing-by-numbers.