alan furst

i've been hearing about him lately for some reason and i'm curious as to whether or not he's worth checking out, where i should start, the usual questions....

Night Soldiers is the first in the spy series, and it sets the stage in that there is a setting in Paris that keeps reappearing in the later books, which might be annoying if you read one of them first. I thought it was good, although more expository than the later ones. If you don't like it you can stop there.

If 1930s-40s European political intrigue does not sound interesting, pass on by.

Avoid the book about Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

Almost any of his books would give you a good idea of what he does. They are all set in the same doomy pre-WWII Europe. There are a few recurring characters and settings, but you don't need to read the books in order. Night Soldiers and Dark Star, the early ones, are long dense novels. The later ones are shorter and faster. The World At Night is set in Paris and is especially rich in noir atmosphere (Red Gold uses the same protagonist). I think I read Kingdom of Shadows and Blood of Victory first. Any of those would be a good introduction.

It's hard to compare him to other suspense writers because he's got such a specific niche, almost his own micro-genre. He writes beautifully. Some people find him heavy on political and military detail, but that information usually comes out through characters and situations rather than in chunks of exposition (as noted above, he's gotten better at this as he's gone along).

i think i'm looking to fill my WW2 era espionage/mystery jones a little more after reading all of the bernie gunther novels by philip kerr.

His early novels in the 1970s achieved limited success. The Ransom collection includes the manuscripts for something called "One Smart Cookie" (with Debbi Fields, 1987), which seems to be a commissioned biography of the owner of the Mrs. Fields Cookies company.

wow!

The World At Night is set in Paris and is especially rich in noir atmosphere (Red Gold uses the same protagonist).

I started with these two, and was hooked. The main character is a Parisian film director who ends up juggling working for a Nazi propaganda film company with secret Resistance work. Very exciting. All his books have been lots of intelligent, exciting fun, though.

Been avoiding this guy, but that sounds pretty good.

I read Night Soldiers and liked but have not been compelled to read anything else by Furst (whereas one Eric Ambler made me want to read everything he wrote)

Where to start with Ambler please.

night soldiers is just so unusual and fascinating to me, and really rather beautifully written. and it strikes me as the sort of novel perfect for the 'tinker tailor soldier spy' intelligent british miniseries-style treatment.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread '1: Must have a mind of Winter; 2: Regard the frost and the boughs'. It's Winter 2010/11: What are you Reading? on board I Love Books on Dec 9, 2010

Night Soldiers by Alan Furst, acquired on omar little's recommendation. The reader's block is back though so it's been slow going - annoying as it should be perfect for curling up with on a snowy December evening.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread '1: Must have a mind of Winter; 2: Regard the frost and the boughs'. It's Winter 2010/11: What are you Reading? on board I Love Books on Jan 13, 2011

I've just finished Night Soldiers by Alan Furst, as noted in the second post on this thread. Loved it, what a story! It's given me so much pleasure and I'm sorry to be leaving it behind. Thanks again for the tip, omar.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread What are you planning to read in 2011? on board I Love Books on Jan 14, 2011

got the second Alan Furst spy novel, Dark Star, heading my way

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread What are you planning to read in 2011? on board I Love Books on Jan 16, 2011

I'm going to read them in order, I don't want to risk spoilers. I've already incurred one for Dark Star after reading some interviews yesterday. The Furst thread on here seems ruiner-free though, so I may post thoughts there instead.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread '1: Must have a mind of Winter; 2: Regard the frost and the boughs'. It's Winter 2010/11: What are you Reading? on board I Love Books on Feb 10, 2011

Started Alan Furst's Dark Star on the train this morning and am hooked already.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread '1: Must have a mind of Winter; 2: Regard the frost and the boughs'. It's Winter 2010/11: What are you Reading? on board I Love Books on Feb 17, 2011

In transit: Dark Star by Alan Furst. It's good, he weaves a tight plot and the world he writes about is such fun to inhabit for a while. However, there are a couple of flaws gnawing at me:

• Szara's not as likeable a protagonist as Stoianev. How important is likeability? I tend to think quite important - if nothing else, I think it's easier to sympathise & empathise with someone whose goals you share, or at least know instinctively.
• in a similar vein, Marta is the object of Szara's desires, which is now starting to motivate his behaviour and is likely to do so much more. The trouble is, Furst's barely set up their relationship - a handful of pages, two meetings and that's it. Couple that with the point above, and there's a hole in motive which I'm having to take on faith. The writer in me finds it very frustrating, especially because it could've been easily fixed by dwelling on the time they did have together just a little more.

That said, I'm enjoying it very much. Have now acquired the next two, so will be with Furst quite a lot this year so long as the above don't become overwhelming.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread '1: Must have a mind of Winter; 2: Regard the frost and the boughs'. It's Winter 2010/11: What are you Reading? on board I Love Books on Mar 11, 2011

More Alan Furst:

• The Polish Officer finished on Tuesday (tight writing; ambiguous ending and loose ends left hanging throughout, I'm divided as to whether this is frustrating or welcome verisimilitude, tending slightly towards the former; some marvellous set pieces especially the sequences at Calais and Nieuwpoort; but lacking a little the suffocating dread of the first two books); then straight onto
• The World At Night (splendid opening, lovely to read a dinner party done well and without smug).

I'm right into these, maybe I should take it to the Alan Furst thread. They read like one long novel to me, it's marvellous to lose oneself in his world.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on Mar 15, 2011

The World At Night by Alan Furst - see every other post I write on here for my thoughts on this guy (I like him).

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on Apr 1, 2011

Back to Furst for me - Red Gold, #5 in the series now. I can't recall having done this before, attacking a single author with such gusto.

It actually feels a little thin, after the literary density of The Swimming Pool Library, but I will adapt. There's a reflection/action payoff in fiction, I've decided - both authors occupy a good place on that spectrum.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on Apr 14, 2011

I finished Red Gold by Alan Furst last night. It was excellent again, his writing is getting noticeably tauter as I progress through the series, and his plots more contained. You gain a lot in terms of burrowing deeper into one character, though I did love the panoramic view of Europe that the first couple of books achieved.

Sadly, I don't feel I did that one justice - I had an extremely stressful week last week, which put me off my reading rather. I've been good this year, properly devoting time to my books while commuting and before sleep, but I let it slip when I was preoocupied. I almost never reread books, but I feel I owe this one an exception.

This morning it was onto Kingdom of Shadows, which is number six. He's really got his openings nailed down now, again I was hooked from page one. The first book, Night Soldiers is I think the only book so far which takes a bit of time to come into focus. I've recommended the series to a couple of people and they've both got stuck right there, which is really unfortunate because it's so smooth thereafter.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on Apr 23, 2011

Last night I finished the sixth book in Alan Furst's espionage series, Kingdom of Shadows. It's the best one so far I feel, though I couldn't quite put my finger on why. Perhaps it's the elegance of the era and settings - it's mostly about the Hungarian nobility and their struggle to untie their country from the binds that Nazi Germany were casting about it in 1938, so there's an awful lot of beautiful decay in the final dissolution of the Austria-Hungarian social order.

I found it fiendishly difficult to follow some of the time, which is a little odd for quite a short book. There are dozens of characters and subplots who feature hugely but only intermittently in the story of the protagonist. It fits with the theme, operating in a world of shadows, so is not unsatisfying in a way that it would be were it down to lack of care by the writer. It does mean you never really know what's going on, though. I do get that from books sometimes, but at least here it's deliberate.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on May 15, 2011

I finished Blood of Victory, #7 in the Alan Furst spy series. Probably the best one yet - the writing and plotting has become really spare, and he's relying more and more on setting for the gloomy mood to seep through. This one centres nominally around a 1941 plot to disrupt supplies of Roumanian oil to Germany, taking in Bucharest, Istanbul and Belgrade, as well as Paris.

What's really notable is that the bad guys barely even make an appearance here - the dread is all in the not knowing, it's proper don't-show-don't-tell stuff and entirely in keeping with the means of operation. I'm getting a real sense of what the characters feel now, a kind of resignation that fate will do what it wants with them, and they may never even find out what that is.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on May 27, 2011

I finished Dark Voyage, #8 in my Furst odyssey. It took its time getting going - it's set on board ship so the wide canvas from the earlier novels is mostly missing - but it makes eventually for a tight, gripping story. I had to keep reading 'til I was done last night, even though it was late and I was dying of tired.

This one had maybe too many characters, it was hard to distinguish between the sailors, and maybe too much left unexplored. There was a sabotage midway through that I'd like to have found out more about, but in keeping with the rest of the series we're finding out less & less as we go along. Again, the villains barely make an appearance.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Spring will be a little late this year: what are you reading, Spring 2011? on board I Love Books on Jun 7, 2011

I finished Furst #9, The Foreign Correspondent, last night. I've given up trying to rank these they're all great. This one is among Italian emigrés in Paris in the lead-up to the Axis pact, also taking in the death of the Spanish Civil War, Berlin and Genoa. I've always fancied going to Genoa but never quite made it, this is just a sketch here but I'm up for it again now. I find Italy such an attractive place and culture anyway, a book with this setting and cast was always going to appeal.

As with most of the other books, there are few massive geoplitical acts of heroism here, just ordinary people caught up at the margins of events. It's quite sweet in its way and a very pleasant way to capture this era I think, you'd get tired if it was all about trying to fit a narrative around single epic historical events. I get the impression (from no great experience) that the majority of thrillers try to do it that way and the personal gets a bit lost, but Furst definitely tackles it the other way round.

The Brasserie Heininger scene here is my favourite since the first book too - there's a real sense of payoff for the previous eight volumes, the way this one was done.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Summer is always late! What are you reading 2011? on board I Love Books on Jul 15, 2011

Furst #10, The Spies Of Warsaw. As enjoyable as ever. I hope he keeps churning them out, I've nearly caught up with him.

Ismael Klata wrote this on thread Summer is always late! What are you reading 2011? on board I Love Books on Jul 26, 2011

That's the last Alan Furst, Spies of the Balkans, just finished. I didn't think I was enjoying it so much, because I didn't get a rounded feel for the main character initially and he kept falling into love affairs which seemed trite and implausible - but it suddenly clicked midway through, when the espionage proper kicked in, and I've devoured half the book in one sitting, which I hardly ever do.

So that's me done, unless and until he writes another. Thanks omar, it was your recommendation last November that got me started, and it's been a real pleasure.

I've been meaning to collect those together for a while. I looked him up today and he's got a new one in the works. Keeping the theme going, this is called The Spies Of Paris and appears to be based among the same cast as Red Gold.

It's out next June and I guess I'll be back here then.

Just reread Dark Star, and re-loved it

yo I am reading Night Soldiers for the first time
and it whips, i love it.
so beautifully written! lots of really excellent turns of phrase & moments that stop me in my tracks.

also, shoutout to this kind of confident, smart but unshowy writing. i love the way he is foregrounding the detailed character story and letting the history play out mostly in the background without explaining shit to you all the time. dude just really knows how to tell a story.

15 years ago I said

you don't need to read the books in order

The first nine or ten novels range from very entertaining to amazingly good.

Been meaning to read him for forever. The World At Night sounds like a good place to start - is that right? Somewhere between the sprawl of the early books and the concision of the later ones, it sounds like.