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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780142004050
ISBN number: 0142004057
Label: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: April 27, 2004
Publishing house: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Release Date: April 27, 2004
Sale Popularity Level: 78243
Studio: Penguin (Non-Classics)
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Robert Littell is a master storyteller of the highest caliber in the ranks of John le Carré, Len Deighton, and Graham Greene. The Once and Future Spy is a tale of espionage and counterespionage that reveals the dirty tricks and dangerous secrets of the subjects Littell knows best—the CIA and American history. When “the Weeder,” an operative at work on a highly sensitive project for “the Company,” encounters an elite group of specialists within the innermost core of the CIA protecting a clandestine plan, the present confronts the past and disturbing moral choices are weighed against a shining patriotic dream. Inventive, imaginative, and relentlessly gripping, The Once and Future Spy is Robert Littell at his most original.
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Rated by buyers 
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Robert Littell has written some of the best espionage novels ever, with "The Company," "Legends," and "The Sisters" rubbing elbows with the best works of le Carre and Graham Greene. With "The Once and Future Spy," Littell has created a quirky little novel that keeps the reader on edge literally up to the last page.
Littell is a master at creating unsettling tones in his books, and this novel is no exception. Our hero is "The Weeder," a CIA-trained historian whose job is to weed through the chaff of the intelligence world - raw data - to find useful wheat - actionable intelligence. The Weeder is a computer whiz, and toils away in his SoHo loft utilizing a computer program that turns literally any phone on its cradle into a perfectly-functioning bug.
The Weeder is also a man carrying a grudge - a former roommate once gave the Weeder's girlfriend some LSD, with tragic results. This former roommate is now Brian Wanamaker and also works for the CIA, but is up to no good. The Weeder has stumbled across Wanamaker's plot to explode a nuclear device in Iran but make it look like an accident caused by Iranian stupidity. Horrified by this betrayal of America's ideals - the Weeder subscribes to the Revolutionary War ethic of having our actions as well as our cause distinguish us from our enemies - the Weeder begins to send "love letters" to Wanamaker - correspondence letting Wanamaker know that the secret is out and to kill the plan.
But Wanamaker is an ambitious, ruthless man, and so he calls in Rear Admiral Pepper Toothacher (Littell is wonderful with names) to "walk back the cat" and plug the leak. And Toothacher, armed with a lifetime of intelligence work, a pair of assassins, and a dark secret, begins the hunt for the Weeder.
Sounds conventional, right? Wrong! This is Robert Littell, after all. The Weeder shares a fascination with American patriot Nathan Hale, and believes that they are long-lost relatives. The Weeder can fancy himself living "Nate's" life and become lost in the rivers of history. Littell tells Nathan's story expertly, but eventually the reader has to face the fact that the Weeder may in fact be a little nuts . . . is he imagining the whole thing?
Littell keeps the reader jumping back and forth on the question of the Weeder's sanity up until the last page. Nothing appears to be what it seems, even in the last paragraph . . . or does it?
I give this novel four stars merely because the story isn't as epic or sinister as Littell's best works, but that doesn't mean that "The Once and Future Spy" is anything less than a first-rate novel.
Rated by buyers 
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How could the author of so great a book as "The Company" draft such a mediocre cliche-ridden effort as this. One reason, I submit, is that he couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to write a historical novel or a spy novel. He had a similar dilemma in "An Agent in Place" where he couldn't decide whether he wanted to write a love story or a spy story. "The Company" was a whole dimension above most spy novels. "The Once and Future Spy," sadly, is simply a uninspired work. The plot was highly improbable, the characters lacked credibility, and Littell resorted to too many cheap plot tricks to speed the book along, at the cost of believeability. Even the whole theme of "whose truth?" also is not all that unique. Don't want to give the ending away so I won't say any more about that except that, personally, I found the ending to be highly unsatisfying. I still have a few more Littell books to read and I am hoping that I will get from them the deep pleasure I got from "The Company." Littell's capable of much much better work than reflected in this novel.
Rated by buyers 
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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.
Rated by buyers -
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.
Rated by buyers -
As an interpreter/teacher at Nathan Hale Homestead in Coventry, CT, it was with great interest that I picked up this book. Nathan Hale is Connecticut's "official state hero", and has been frozen in time as "the patriot-martyr-spy of the American Revolution." Well, the Nathan Hale that I know and admire was a twenty-one-year old kid with a desire to do something important for his country. Kind of like kids serving in the war in Iraq. What I appreciate about The Once and Future Spy is Littel's depiction of Hale as a flesh and blood, passionate, adventurous young man. While this book may not be great history, and I don't necessarily believe in the accuracy of its speculation about Nathan's doomed spy mission, I do appreciate it for thawing out this frozen icon a little.
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