A Nasty Piece of Work

Robert Littell is thought of primarily as a writer of espionage stories, including The Defection of AJ Lewinter, The Company and, most recently, Young Philby. The blurb on the jacket pays him the compliment of being ‘the American John le Carré’ - a description with which most people familiar with the two authors would agree. It is a little misleading, however, because this book doesn’t deal with the theme of espionage and the fact that Gunn was until recently in the CIA is not particularly relevant to the storyline. What it does do, or what it is intended to do is not absolutely clear because stylistically it is a little puzzling.

Ornella Neppi’s sudden appearance out of nowhere, her sexual attraction and her initial conversations with Gunn are almost pure Raymond Chandler. The fact that, like that author’s novels, this one is a first-person narrative, and that the narrator is always looking for a wisecrack makes the comparison even more apt.

Nor is it just Gunn himself who appears to enjoy slick conversation. The policeman, Awlson, Ornella Neppi, Gunn’s adopted daughter Kubra, even the concierge of the apartment in which Gava had lived – all of them seem incapable of having a normal conversation. The difficulty lies in deciding precisely how we are to take this. Is it simply imitation or is it parody?

If the first, Littell is not the first to have gone down that road but, whilst he is more successful than most, what exactly is the point? If, on the other hand, it is parody, then it ought to be funnier than it is. The humour is frequently strained, not to say repetitive. The question of whether the name ‘Gunn’ ought to be spelt with one or two Gs crops up on a number of occasions, as does the reference to Yul Brynner’s The King and I song It’s a Puzzlement when something occurs that leaves the hero wondering what to do next. There are other little mannerisms of language that leave the reader uncertain of the author’s intention.

The format of the plot is also reminiscent of Chandler as Lemuel Gunn interviews various people, each of whom brings him closer to his target. The approach is that of the tough man, always challenging if not actually threatening, particularly when he comes across the lawyer who had arranged bail for Gava. Unfortunately, the climax that takes place in the Mojave Desert is quite unbelievable, though it does at least explain why Ornella Neppi's occupation was that of a puppeteer! But would she really have wanted, purely on the spur of the moment, to purchase a pair of night vision glasses?

Perhaps one of the main weaknesses of the book – and one which adds to the reader’s uncertainty – is the episode in Afghanistan when Gunn was in the CIA. Suddenly introduced for reasons that are not obvious is an account of an operation against the Mujahideen in which civilians are deliberately killed by a US special forces group. This has a very powerful effect on Gunn but when he protests about it to his station chief he is told to submit a report which is then conveniently lost. It is only towards the end of the book, when he is confronted with a similar situation, that we begin to understand why this is included. At that point the story has essentially come to a conclusion and the ‘surprise’ which is suddenly added on is not only unconvincing, but tasteless and unnecessary.

All in all, this book is a disappointment. Perhaps, after 40 years of writing about espionage, Littell is looking to find new horizons but this is unlikely to appeal to those readers who enjoyed and were thrilled by the earlier books.