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Summary: Alan Furst has the sense of the mid 20th Century down pat.
Review: This is as fine a piece of historical fiction as I have read. The author carries off a fine and direct character study and sets it in those dark days just prior to the German national insanity. Set in France with excursions of the most unusual and danngerous sort into the border states as the Nazi machine gains speed. I plan to read all of Mr. Furst's works as soon as I can track them all down.A complex delight.
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Summary: Byzantine Beginnings to WWII - Superb Historical Spy Novel
Review: This is my second reading. I returned to Kingdom of Shadows after reading Robert D. Kaplan's influential Balkan Ghosts, A Journey Through History. I read Balkan Ghosts, partly due to my fascination with the historical and geographical details in the novels of Alan Furst. Nicholas Morath is half-owner of the Agence Courtmain, a small and reasonably prosperous advertising agency, an unexpected gift from his Uncle Janos Polanyi, Count Polanyi, a Hungarian diplomat in Paris. Nicholas admires his aging uncle and willingly assists him in various efforts. We readers, along with Nicholas himself, only poorly understand the full purpose of these ventures into central Europe. Hitler's aggressive behavior threatens Hungary, still recovering from its defeat in World War I. Through convoluted plots Count Polanyi quietly battles others willing to align Hungary with Hitler to regain territory lost after World War I. Alan Furst redefines the historical spy novel, superbly melding history and geography into a riveting novel. The best analogy may be a comparison with classic black and white film noir, an atmosphere of darkness and despair. Nicholas struggles to carry out his missions, but each action only advances Hungary closer to an inevitable catastrophe. Reading an Alan Furst novel is a delight. He provides a fascinating story of espionage embedded in a realistic historical, cultural, and geographical matrix. I have now read three books by Furst. They are all excellent. Kingdom of Shadows is my favorite.
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Summary: Byzantine Beginnings to WWII - Superb Historical Spy Novel
Review: This is my second reading. I returned to Kingdom of Shadows after reading Robert D. Kaplan's influential Balkan Ghosts, A Journey Through History. I read Balkan Ghosts, partly due to my fascination with the historical and geographical details in the novels of Alan Furst. Nicholas Morath is half-owner of the Agence Courtmain, a small and reasonably prosperous advertising agency, an unexpected gift from his Uncle Janos Polanyi, Count Polanyi, a Hungarian diplomat in Paris. Nicholas admires his aging uncle and willingly assists him in various efforts. We readers, along with Nicholas himself, only poorly understand the full purpose of these ventures into central Europe. Hitler's aggressive behavior threatens Hungary, still recovering from its defeat in World War I. Through convoluted plots Count Polanyi quietly battles others willing to align Hungary with Hitler to regain territory lost after World War I. Alan Furst redefines the historical spy novel, superbly melding history and geography into a riveting novel. The best analogy may be a comparison with classic black and white film noir, an atmosphere of darkness and despair. Nicholas struggles to carry out his missions, but each action only advances Hungary closer to an inevitable catastrophe. Reading an Alan Furst novel is a delight. He provides a fascinating story of espionage embedded in a realistic historical, cultural, and geographical matrix. I have now read three books by Furst. They are all excellent. Kingdom of Shadows is my favorite.
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Summary: In a world of shadows, danger is only a mistep away
Review: This novel is the story of Nickolas Morath. Morath is a Hungarian noble from a very wealthy family. The time is late 1937, early 1938 and the Nazi star is rising rapidly in Europe. Morath lives a life of luxury and ease in Paris but his ideal existence is being intruded upon by Hitler and his Nazi thugs. Late night Parisian dinners with Champaign cannot stop the Nazi war machine and Morath is slowy but surely dragged into the political intrigue of the times. His native nation of Hungary is allied with Nazi Germany but many of his fellow upper class Hungarians think Hitler a dangerous lunatic. However, no one has the guts to stand up to Hitler on the European continent and so Hitler is conistantly getting whatever he demands. Morath's uncle, Janos Panolpy, is another Hungain noble but he is engaged in a dangerous game of playing both sides against the middle. He despises Hitler but as an offical of the Hungarian government he must go along with the offical program, at least in theory. Meanwhile he is running anti-Nazi espionage programs from behind enemy lines. He recruits his nephew, Morath, to help him. Morath agrees mostly because he realizes that no one else is doing much of anything to stop Hitler. Furst creates an atmosphere of constant tension and fear because the forces of evil are so much stronger than the forces of good. More and more "reasonable" people are beginning to accept Hitler and his Nazi regime as a fact of life. This passivity only emblodens the Nazis. Morath crosses borders into barbaric eastern European nations and smuggles out fugitves of dubious morality. He spies and lies and uses his money and influence to try to work against the Nazis, all the time knowing how overmatched he is and that his life is in constant danger. He ends up pulling others into his dangerous life in order to futher his own ends. This is no James Bond movie type spy novel full of dashing heroics and witticisms in the face of danger, rather a story of constant fear where the hero is often unarmed and in danger of being captured and tortured and if caught their will be no last minute rescue. This novel is what a real spy's life is like, lonely and terrible but very necessary. In Morath's travles he goes to different European cities including Austria. Furst does a terrific job of making the reader feel like he to is Europe during the dark days of the late 1930s with the forces of Evil increasing in strength and towering over the lives of common people. It is one thing to understand the Nazi menace intellectually, it is another to understand it expoliantially, and this novel comes as close to doing that for the contemporary reader as possible. This is by far Furst's best book
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Summary: Not Furst's best work
Review: This one is a far cry from Furst's earlier works. Very little in the way of a plot, and even that is pretty thin. It seems to have no beginning, middle or end, or any real defining climax. I read this one out of principle, as other books by Furst have been immensely satisfying (particularly Dark Star, Night Soldiers).
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Summary: Wonderful novel about Paris during the Occupation
Review: This was my first Alan Furst book, based on Penzler's pick of it in January. I found Nicholas Morath and Count Polanyi very believable characters with a lot of depth to them. While I can't say from first hand experience whether the book accurately describes how it feels to be in Paris during the Nazi occupation, the book's atmosphere rings true. Furst is able to paint seemingly ordinary (very rich but not idle rich) people caught up in World War II and how they chose to react to the Nazis. I liked the book enough that I bought 4 more Furst books.
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Summary: Espionage before the "Good War"
Review: Thoroughly enjoy Furst's description of pre-WW11 Europe which evocatively capture the atmosphere of the times. Love the ambiguity between 'good' spies and 'bad' spies. His books (I've read five) force me to get out the atlas to pin-point where the action is taking place. I was always a LeCarre fan, now I am a big fan of Alan Furst.
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Summary: Furst Continues to Deliver
Review: Though perhaps not quite up to the standard of "The Polish Officer", this is a wonderful book. The visit to the Czech fortress is haunting, as much for the way it is set up and described, as for the realization it creates of just how many opportunities the West missed to stop Hitler in his tracks before 1939. Can't wait to see Furst's next effort.
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Summary: Finally someone to take Eric Ambler's place!
Review: When I was a young man, I read Eric Ambler. His early books, especially, were perfect. Over the years, I've reread them. I never thought anyone else could ever create the world of espionage in the 20's, 30's, and 40's as he did. Finally, I discovered Alan Furst, but only after someone in Australia told me about him. I had never heard of Alan Furst, which is really strange, I think, since he's an American. Now, I can't get enough of his writing. I've already read all of his works and am waiting for the next book.
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Summary: Furst Writes The Best WWII Novels. Period.
Review: While Kingdom of Shadows may be half a notch below Furst's best work (The World At Night, Dark Star), it is still a superior story, wonderfully told, with a subtlety other reviewers may confuse for meandering. The book may seem slightly off from his best because it is in feeling and in time like so many of his other novels; however, the story is enough different and these new characters enough in their own worlds that it remains compelling. Furst captures the horror and wonder of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary events, and their reaction to a world truly turned upside down. His attention to detail and history create a spirit of the time that makes it feel like you're there. Truly another remarkable novel.
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