As a background, I had not heard of Robert Littell until I picked this book up on a whim for a couple of bucks at the Friends of the Library sale. I was too young during the cold war and did not live in the United States then and so have not experienced what it was like then.

The novel depicts how the ambitions of 2 men in the counter intelligence industry on both sides of the iron curtain is akin to a standard game of chess including the effect of the ruthless cold war politics on the pa... (show more)

As a background, I had not heard of Robert Littell until I picked this book up on a whim for a couple of bucks at the Friends of the Library sale. I was too young during the cold war and did not live in the United States then and so have not experienced what it was like then.

The novel depicts how the ambitions of 2 men in the counter intelligence industry on both sides of the iron curtain is akin to a standard game of chess including the effect of the ruthless cold war politics on the passed pawns. It also provides a good glimpse into the psyche of the Russian intellectuals during that period.

I loved Littel's style especially considering this was his debut novel, and would want tor read more of his novels. (show less)

Picked this up at the Friends of the Library sale as the back cover sounded interesting. If you are looking for a suspenseful mystery, then this is not the book. It is a great story though which intertwines psychobabble and Cicero's philosophy. If you want to read stuff like "Just because we're smarter than people doesn't mean our emotions are any finer ... It's convenient for us to think that the nasty emotions, hate and anger, can adhere to the lower orders, as if they owned them by ri... (show more)

Picked this up at the Friends of the Library sale as the back cover sounded interesting. If you are looking for a suspenseful mystery, then this is not the book. It is a great story though which intertwines psychobabble and Cicero's philosophy. If you want to read stuff like "Just because we're smarter than people doesn't mean our emotions are any finer ... It's convenient for us to think that the nasty emotions, hate and anger, can adhere to the lower orders, as if they owned them by right. So that leaves us, not surprisingly, to lay claim to love and joy and all those high-souled things ... They love, the stupid and the dull and the crude, quite as strongly as we do. They just can't dress their emotions up in pretty words the way we do.", then this book is for you. All in all, it’s a very enjoyable read (ok, I added his last sentence, so it would get marked as a SUPER review! :-) (show less)