? UNDER THE LAMPLIGHT-

The Company: A Story of the CIA by Robert Littell is a fictionalized retelling of the CIA from 1950 to the 1990s. The beauty of this 900-page monster of a book that keeps you turning the pages is that the lines between history and fiction are so blurred that you begin to question the truth. The story’s characters are also a thrill, such as the main US agent, Harvey “The Sorcerer” Torriti, who is an anti-hero in comparison to the renditions of the American superhero spy that we see today. He is paunchy, an alcoholic, and listens to opera only to mask his voice should he be spied upon by his adversaries, the KGB. This saga will give you everything any fan of the Cold War era enjoys: Plots, assassination attempts, retelling of true historical events such as the Cuban Bay of Pigs incident, and the Hungarian Uprising. Littell also does not leave out the presidents — look for his versions of the Kennedy brothers and Ronald Reagan where he gives conspiracy theorists their day in the sun. Another key figure that he paints as one of paranoia is James J. Angleton, the former CIA Chief of Counterintelligence from 1954 to 1975 and his consistent search for a mole that permeates every chapter.

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