Monday, December 31, 2018

Mount TBR #29


I read this book for the Mount TBR 2018 Reading Challenge.

I forgot to post this in mid-October, apparently.

The World at Night – Alan Furst

This thriller tells a spy story in Nazi-occupied Paris. The hero, Jean-Claude Casson, is a semi-successful movie producer who is the object of pressure from the Gestapo to get involved in counter-espionage action against the British. At 42 years of age, Casson is the classic Furstian protagonist: living a silly life until circumstance - such as living under a malicious tyranny run by troglodytes – forces him to face the fact that he won’t have any self-respect if he lets people push him around.

There is, as we’d expect, a love interest, the exotic actress Citrine. But there is also duty to himself and his country. Furst puts Casson through changes, from self-centered man about town to petrified, hesitant spy. The missions remind one of the mess-ups and foul-ups in Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden.

Like other novels of the Occupation of France (e.g., Dirty Snow, by Simenon), Furst’s purpose and concern seems to be to get across the terrified, bleak atmosphere of one of the most wonderful cities in the world occupied by terrible despots and tormentors. Furst explores his favorite theme of ordinary people doing that they can against tyrants and their willing collaborators.


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