Where has HE been all my life: The novels of Alan Furst!

Quite by chance, I stopped by a usually unexciting paperback exchange and found a copy of "Midnight in Europe" by Alan Furst. Even though the book cover advertised that admirers of John Le Carre would love this author, I tried the book anyway. I have found you can't believe this tribute, since no writer can live up to it.

"Midnight.." is one of Furst's recent stories--his body of work seems to comprise a long discussion in the form of fictional adventures--of the efforts of individuals and groups to resist the Nazi and other Facist occupations of Europe in the late '30's and '40's of the last century.

Furst writes eloquently about the period, the culture, the general atmosphere, the ambiance, etc of the times and the places: Eastern Europe, Spain, France. Paris of the time comes alive under his hand.
There is suspense and a little bit of terror, but not too scary.

I have binge read nearly half a dozen of his titles--his earlier work seems more interesting than more recent. I'm on "The Polish Officer" currently. I can barely put it down.

A couple of updates: after reading all these books, I will add, love/sex scenes in these books are often like a trip to the GYN to get your PAP test!! Ick, sometimes! Seems a bit out of character for his handsome, worldly, sophisticated heroes. (Or I may not be a "target" audience member).

Furst is very good at depicting his chosen time setting: 1938-1942; (the time when Hitler was ascendant and many felt his victory in Europe forever was assured.) he is old enough to have known many people who knew this time well. His work is carefully researched from sources current at that time. He is also adapt at using weather to enhance his scenes; he always has a good European breed of dog somewhere in the story--entertaining.

Another novel I read (but have not mentioned) "The Velvet Hours" by Alyson Richman concerns Paris in exactly the same situation: the Nazi take-over of France. It is like two novels coiled into one.
First, a family story of a romance in the Belle Epoch which ultimately produced a young lady (our heroine) whose life evolves--second--into a daring escape of Jewish people with a romantic twist and a poignant reminder that sometimes life or death hinged on the tiniest events.

It is time for a "book round-up"! Part 1

Even though it has been a busy summer, I always have a book "going" along with whatever else I do. Isn't it that way with you?

With a couple of exceptions, I have a whole stack of "nothing too special" on my left as I compose this entry:

From my parents' old bookcase, I found P. D. James' first crime novel, "Cover Her Face"; it was like a Barbara Pym novel with a "warm, milky drinks murder"--well written, no doubt--but the world has changed from 1960 when people happily read these well composed, scripted crime novels.

Since one of our sets of kids will re-locate from LA to Princeton, NJ soon, I finally read a little old hard cover book,"The Fish-Shape Paumonok - Nature and Man on Long Island" by Robert Cushman Murphy. This is one of the exceptions to the disclaimers above. The book is the text, with photos and drawings, from the author's Penrose Memorial Lecture (1962) for the American Philosophical Society.  Murphy was a very old man in 1962 and remembered Long Island well, growing up there before the turn of the 20th Century. He was distressed at the changes due to over-building and over- population; the lecture/book was crafted toward the very dawn of the environmental movement, before it was heavily politicized.     Somehow, my copy is autographed by the author; I will give the book to my son.

"The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien. The subject of the Vietnam War is one I have, sort of, avoided since I was a teenager. Until much later, I did not really know anybody who served there.
My nearest touch to the war, in those days: perhaps 1967, during a holiday home from college, my Father was taken to the emergency room at Great Lakes Naval Base hospital (suspected heart problem). During our time waiting, there was a virtual parade of wheeled stretchers along an extended hallway from an entrance bay to a bank of elevators far away; each stretcher with a wounded man--some blood visible--brought back from Vietnam for treatment at the military hospital.  That was a shock.  The book? Well written. Could any operation so ill-conceived and badly run as that war result in anything good? You can't enjoy a reading experience like this; like a holocaust book; but as part of an effort to understand the War? Yes.

Not a Book this Time: a short expedition: Muskegon, MI by Lake Ferry (and feet)

Milwaukee Skyline from ferry dock.

 Not exactly a "bucket list" item, but I have lived in the Great Lakes Region of NA for about 60 years and have never had occasion to cross Lake Michigan by boat. I'm not a nautically inclined person, neither is Hubsy. We are sort of "Meh" about boats. We drove to Milwaukee and took the Lake Express "Fast Ferry" across to Muskegon, MI. Like a wide-bodied plane that scooted across the water.

Outdoor park sculpture near Post Office, Muskegon, MI

 It was a couple of pretty days for our adventure. We walked and walked.

On the downtown street, Muskegon, MI

 A historic and formerly wealthy, industrial harbor town nestled in a bay off the Lake, Muskegon has probably "seen better days", on the other hand those were very polluted days--a hundred and some years ago. The Industrial Magnate provided endowments for education and arts: our goal was to visit the Art Museum in the little city. That was well worth the entire trip.

I loved the design of their storm drain covers. I always notice these features. That and interesting fire plugs.

In a small public street corner garden, a Monet lily garden was crafted. That's a sweet idea for random scraps of urban land.

A gem of the restored homes in the historic residential district, associated with an area history museum.

Not our boat, but a retired antique, The Milwaukee Clipper, now a museum.