The Foreign Correspondent
 
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Simon & Schuster Audioworks Format: Abridged, Language: English (Unknown) |
RRP: £12.27
And the point is...?
Review date: 2008-02-02 Rating: 2 out of 10
I was expecting an awful lot more from this novel. I saw a brief review of it in a magazine and thought it sounded right up my alley. In reality, I was bored stiff by it.
I really failed to see the point of the plot. In a era fraught with tension, true fear and mounting panic Furst has come up with a narrative that drags its heels further hampered by some of the most constipated dialogue I've read in many a long year.
He falls into the fatal trap of affecting a bizarre tone when writing charaters whose first language isn't English in a bid to make them seem foreign; it just ends up making them see chronically unrealistic. The characers here lack depth anyway, their speech doesn't help their cause. It's the literary equivalent of actors adpoting a one-size-fits-all foreign accent - a bit French, a bit German, lots of eye rolling, everyone's confused.
And the plot? Twenty pages from the end I was still waiting to see what the point of it was. Was it to get Christa out of Berlin? Was it to re-start the paper? Was it to stop OVRA operating in Paris? I don't know. Only the former was resolved and I wasn't remotely bothered by that.
278 pages and I don't think I cared about a single thing that happened on a single one of them. This could have been an exciting novel, instead it could put a glass eye to sleep. I'm off to read some John Le Carre to mitigate its effects...
Reviews
Dark and foreign
Review date: 2007-11-24 Rating: 8 out of 10
Having discovered Furst this summer, I have been enjoying going through the catalogue. What I really enjoy about Furst's work is how it makes me think again about the tragic history of Europe in the 20th century and unimaginably horrific events within living memory in ostensibly civilised societies. His work makes me feel lucky to be living in this era - which is strange in itself. This is somehow less intense than the novels set in eastern Europe but Furst shines a soft torchlight on the era gently unfolding an ostensibly simple plot using a fascinating blend of characters. A pervasive theme in his work is the characters' lack of awareness of the true extent of the horrors that are going to engulf Europe - it gives the reader a range of new perspectives on our common (European) history. My niggling reservation about this novel (similar to his other books) is the ending.
Furst among equals
Review date: 2007-11-17 Rating: 6 out of 10
Maybe it's me. I've read all of Furst's novels in this loose "series", and I'm a big fan. But either I'm getting bored with the style, or he's treading water.
This certainly isn't a bad book. And there's nohing wrong with taking a "low key" approach to the 30s/40s espionage genre - but the Graham Greene comparisons are way off the mark. Compared to his earlier works, I'm afraid this is "Furst by numbers". All the usual elements are there: the jaded but honest protagonist, the potentially doomed love affair, the "night and fog" locations, and a few of the "occasional" characters from the earlier books.
But it just never quite catches fire. Sad to say, I could easily have put this book down a few pages before the end, with no burning desire to finish it. And that's something I never thought I'd say about an Alan Furst novel. I'll still await his next book with anticipation, because I know what he's capable of - but I think he needs to re-read "The Polish Officer" or "Dark Star" as a reminder of how it should be done.
The Perfect Cultural Mix ...?
Review date: 2007-11-04 Rating: 8 out of 10
Having read an Alan Furst book for the first time, I check up and notice he has quite a reputation. A great storyteller, say critics writing in prestigious publications. Can't argue with that. The Foreign Correspondent carries the reader easily along, augments temperature, pace and complications at just the right cadence, gradually fits the jigsaw pieces together and ends with a satisfying climax.
A great evoker of historical time and place, the critics add. In this case, it's pre-World War II Europe, full of menace and about to explode. Furst specializes in re-creating myriads of cultural microcosms - for example his fascinating description of left-wing Genoese food market stallholders dealing with an unwelcome intrusion by Fascist police. Where on earth did to find out what it was like, just there, just then?
So often he excels himself, but occasionally these cultural tours de force are mildly suspect. His hero comes from Trieste: part Italian, part Slovene. A multi-cultural mix perfectly suited for his theme, with the Slovene component presumably intended to add Balkan zest. However the Slovenes I know are down-to-earth, pragmatic, low-key and somewhat unsophisticated. None of these traits appear in the hero. He is not Slovene.
The Reuters he portrays is leisurely in its work ethic and run by directors who are hand in glove with British Intelligence. I sweated blood and tears as a foreign correspondent for this agency for 18 years, including in Cold War Eastern Europe and the Portuguese Revolution, and I never felt the breath of British Intelligence down my neck once. My managers were so intensely independent, they were at times frankly anti-British.
OK, OK, calm down: it's fiction -- and a great read. Thank you Alan Furst. I wish I could write as well.
Marcus Ferrar www.marcusferrar.org
My First Furst - hooked but not yet 100% convinced
Review date: 2007-06-04 Rating: 8 out of 10
I enjoyed it - having been recommended him by friends I trust. This was the first volume to hand in a bookshop so bought it without knowing anything about it. Was immediately swept into the murk and dinge of pre-war Paris - which was excellent. He seems to have lost his faith in main verbs, but this was gradually restored as the book went on (or is that my imagination?) - it took a bit of time to get into the style - but it's staccato writing certainly helped to conjure up the nervousness and insecurity of living in a world gone mad and overshadowed by war.
For all the suspense and evocation of the book, which i loved (Furst is clearly a very descriptive, poetic even, writer), i couldn't help feeling a little disappointed by the conclusion. I kept wondering how he was going to pull it off as i ran out of pages and so knew the end had to be coming somehow. Kolb's Berlin visit only takes a few pages, and Weisz's final journey (please note care with which i try to avoid plot spoiling) is also rushed. He suddenly arrives - and book ends. Ho hum.
But then i suppose this is a love story not a John Le Carre - and that is sort of the point, i guess. It is humanity and relationships that are the most valuable treasure to protect to in wartime. I have to agree. It's just that i would have greatly enjoyed further descriptions by Furst of how to reach this conclusion. But then, if one is begging an author for more, then this presumably means he has done his job pretty well.
Product Details/Specifications
Authors:
Alan Furst
Creators:
Alfred Molina (Contributor)
Recording label: Simon & Schuster Audioworks
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Audioworks
EAN: 9780743564564
Binding: Unknown Binding
Dewey decimal number: 813
ISBN: 0743564561
Publication date: 2006-06
Format: Abridged,
Language: English (Unknown)
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