"The Publisher's Review" was kind to end its assessment of the book with, "...but a little silly.""Silly" began about page five and reappeared frequently during the remaining 285 pages. We're looking here at "silly" at the high school composition level, and the plot is strained and worse even than the writing.This was copywritten 13 years ago, and Littell has become a somewhat better writer in the interim. I just finished his latest, "The Company," and it was worth about 3 1/2 stars. I'll skip anything else by him.The old phrase, "the book's not worth the candle," is too kind for "The Once and Future Spy."