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151st out of 486 books
—
434 voters
Walking Back the Cat
The New York Times has called Robert Littell "the American Le Carre," and his terrific new thriller shows why. A KGB contract killer nicknamed Parsifal, living in New Mexico as a dealer in rare guns, is suddenly called back into action by his old controller and ordered to remove a Russian defector and several leaders of the Apache tribe who run a gambling casino. Parsifal...more
Hardcover, 224 pages
Published
May 1st 1997
by Overlook Hardcover
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With a 3-star review, I would put this as "very good" and also in Graham Greene's "an entertainment" category: not too heavy, but well written and very chewable. Like spy/espionage thrillers? CIA yarns?? Dig it. This time, Robert Littell uses a seemingly unlikely recipe to concoct a quick-moving blast of post-cold war ink-and-paper cinema. Here he uses:
A KGB wet-work team and hit-man
A discharged Gulf War vet
A hot-air balloon (that's right, a dirigible!)
An indian reservation
Sounds weird, right?...more
A KGB wet-work team and hit-man
A discharged Gulf War vet
A hot-air balloon (that's right, a dirigible!)
An indian reservation
Sounds weird, right?...more
Marvelous post-Cold War spy thriller about Finn, an Iraq 1 veteran whose hot air balloon lands in an Indian reservation and Parsifal, a long-dormant Soviet assassin revived for a new series of wetwork operations. Someone is shaking down the Indian's casino and anyone who tries to do anything about it meets with an accident. Finn looks into the shakedown and Parsifal receives instructions to off him. But why is a Soviet agent doing hits for what appears to be a Mafia operation?
Littell has been c...more
Littell has been c...more
There is nothing straightforward about Littell's spy stories. I don't think I'd want them any other way. It was a little predictable and the characters were almost cliched, but the story was fresh, addictive and enjoyable.
I disagree with the NYT comment "the American LaCarre". Littell is FAR better than LaCarre. OK, brand me as a heretic, but I often have trouble finishing LaCarre, while I had trouble putting this down.
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Jul 28, 2010
Kevin Jolly
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Walking Back the Cat by Robert Littell (2008)
I couldn't finish it. The two main characters are trying to find out who sent one of them to kill the other, and I just didn't care who did it. Oh well, I liked all of the other books of his that I read.
Very enjoyable, but the ending was a little too smooth.
this is a great book and i recommend it to everyone
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An American author residing in France. He specializes in spy novels that often concern the CIA and the Soviet Union. He became a journalist and worked many years for Newsweek during the Cold War. He's also an amateur mountain climber and is the father of award-winning novelist Jonathan Littell.
More about Robert Littell...
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