Siro

by David Ignatius

Book Overview

Made restless by the tightening restrictions of CIA bureaucracy, agent Alan Taylor oversteps moral and legal bounds in a top-secret mission to destabilize the Soviet Union. His new recruit--the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374265062
• ISBN13: 9780374265069
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 465 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.5" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

A writer's writer

A most engaging and adult treatment...which is rare in these days of pop writers. I recommend all of his books to anyone who enjoys sophisticated writing and adult ideas written in a thoughtful and satisfying way.

The best description of Armenia in fiction -- and much more

I read SIRO for one reason only: it was the only work of fiction I could find that had scenes set in Armenia. Even if that leaves you indifferent, this is an excellent spy novel and well worth reading. Ignatius's research -- geographical, historical, and organizational -- is superb. While his story briefly spins into something not quite believable, his underlying description of the CIA and its employees rings true. Ignatius neither glorifies nor deamonizes them, he simply recounts what their lives must be like and what he believes they must feel. And if you are one of the rare few that is interested in Armenia as a backdrop for at least part of a novel, you will not be disapointed. Late in the novel we are introduced to Armenian character, and we are eventually transported to Armenia with some of the characters. Ignatius gets nearly every detail right, and it was as though I had actually visited Armenia, however briefly.

A very gifted writer with strong sense of humor

This is a most gifted novelist with natural paintbrush. Every book written by Ignatius was thoroughly reseached before put into writing. If you are keen enough in humor, some of the chapters and paragraghs were the most humorous creation ever written by a novelist! Some readers might find this book somehow not so easy to read along since the Cold War was over and CIA is really and actually in deep shit now. But Ignatius never failed to amazed the readers that he could adjust himself pretty well and fast; he proved it in his recent good book, A FIRING OFFENSE.