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the complete review - fiction

The Defection of A.J. Lewinter

by
Robert Littell

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B : amusingly and quite cleverly spun-out Cold War spy tale

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "The possibilities feed on themselves as they beam back and forth like light between two facing mirrors; and with devilish cleverness and perfect dramatic timing Mr. Littell exploits them to the utmost. In fact the mental tension he manages to generate is like that of a nervous game of chess (.....) To the story's maddeningly logical possibilities, add the unusual credibility of Mr. Littell's scenes (.....) (I)t's one of the best Cold‐War thrillers I've read in years." - Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times
  
  
• "Lewinter is thrust and counterthrust, guess and counter guess -- the rivalry of competing American security bureaus, the tentacles of Russian security, everybody wondering about the nature of this particular truth, all examining entrails to arrive at a conclusion. It is a complicated chess game that Littell has set up, and the gambits are many." - Newgate Callendar, The New York Times Book Review
  
  
• "Here is a quite remarkable first novel, dispensing with sex and violence but still constantly fascinating; it lingers in the mind long after the last page (with its brilliantly ironic final sentence) has been read. It is neither really a defector story nor really a spy story, but something sui generis, and as such to be. welcomed with open arms. The writing is assured and the characterisation excellent -- but it's, the theme which counts." - Edmund Crispin, Sunday Times
  
  
• "Very, very sharp. Motives analysed devastatingly as a Fischer, or Spassky" - H. R. F. Keating, The Times

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       The A.J.Lewinter of the title is an associate professor at MIT, specializing in ceramic engineering -- and: "For the last four years I've been working on ceramic nose cones for the MIRV Program" (as in: Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles -- : "basically a nose-cone package or pod which puts three pay loads where there used to be one, thereby multiplying our fire power and the chances of penetrating the enemy's antimissile defense"). On the side, Lewinter also tinkers with grand plans for a solid-waste-disposal system (something no one else shows any interest in).
       Traveling lightly to an ecological symposium in Tokyo, he heads to the Soviet embassy and offers himself up: he wants to defect -- knowing, as do the Soviets, that if they want to take him up on his offer they have to act fast, which they do. The question then which both the Soviets and the Americans have to ask (and make the other wonder) is: is Lewinter the real thing, with something to offer, or not ? Indeed, his ceramic expertise isn't something of particular interest or concern -- but it turns out that he did briefly get his eyes on something else MIRV-related that could be very valuable. And, as a child, he apparently had a photographic memory, and perhaps does so again .....
       If the Soviets decide to believe what he has to offer is genuine, then they would have a lot to gain from acting on it (though it would cost a lot to do so) -- if, at the same time, they can lead the Americans to believe that they didn't buy (in the sense of: believe in the veracity of) what Lewinter was offering. Meanwhile, if the Americans are convinced that Lewinter is offering the Soviets valuable information they have an incentive to undermine his credibility -- like make it seem that he is an American plant.
       It makes for a kind of chess game -- a notion Littell encourages with the titles he gives to each of the six parts of the novel ('The Opening', 'The Response', 'The Middle Game', 'The Gambit', 'The End Game', and 'The Passed Pawn'); there is also a chess Grand Master who comes to play a prominent role in the novel.
       Moving back and forth between events in the Soviet Union and the United States, as each side tries to feel out just how likely it is that Lewinter is the real deal and just how important what he knows is (and hence how they should react to what has happened), the novel offers an entertaining look at such Cold War games. Among the chapters are several of transcripts of conversations with those who knew Lewinter in the US, as the Americans try to figure out what his deal is (he is an odd fellow -- and also, in many ways, an almost secondary figure in the novel). . There's also some competition between different actors in the intelligence services -- and an entertaining elaborate role-playing scenario, the: "strange Kafkaesque business" of the Game Testing Center, where some 350 people each take on the role of a foreign counterpart, following their careers closely and, when called upon, putting themselves in their shoes in trying to play out how, for example, the Soviets might be reacting to the information they have and situation they are in.
       Littell uses the uncertainty on each side and their ideas about how to act and react well, making for a quite clever and often amusing game (while also not shying away from some terrible personal costs exacted along the way). It makes for a fine little Cold War thriller, a creative spin on the usual spy tale.

- M.A.Orthofer, 19 September 2026

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Links:

• Soho Press publicity page
• J'ai lu publicity page

• Foreword Reviews
• Mark Pack
• Publishers Weekly
• Risingshadow
• Tzer Island
• Nick Wiltsher

• Robert Littell at Andrew Nurnberg Associates

• The Amateur

• See Index of Mysteries and Thrillers
• See Index of Contemporary American fiction

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About the Author:

       American author Robert Littell was born in 1935.

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© 2026 the complete review

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