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Loading... Kingdom of Shadows (2000)by Alan Furst
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. I didn't think it was that good. Other than the backdrop of Hungary and Eastern Europe before the Second World War which was intriguing an area that doesn't get a lot of attention. The plot was slow and plodding maybe I missed something I listen while I drive. ( ) Another more-than-solid Alan Furst novel. I don't mean that in a dismissive way. I like how the novel doesn't necessarily have an overarching plot holding it all together. Instead, it just follows a Hungarian expat as he gets drawn more and more into the pre-WWII turmoil in Europe. Furst does a nice job of enveloping late '30s Europe in sepia tone...and somehow also manages to dash the romanticism to pieces in the process. My mother was a Hungarian emigre. I was born soon after she gained her American citizenship. The locations of Hungary and its surrounding countries were of special interest to me. In 1938, a Hungarian ad agency man becomes a spy against Hitler's Germany. This was the first book of Alan Furst's that I have read, and I was mightily impressed. In my experience, a new novel by Furst is always a treat. Like his earlier books, this one is something of a series of vignettes that could stand on their own as superior short stories and which combine to make a fine novel. Through the course of the vignettes, we watch as Nicholas Morath, the protagonist, gets drawn more and more into the world of his uncle, who is a Hungarian nobleman, diplomat and Hitler antagonist. I know of no one who does a better job of evoking a time and a place than Furst does with his WWII stories, and this one is no exception. And like his previous works, this one is full of interesting minor characters brought to life in an excellent narrative from a master of the genre. Imagine a cross between Graham Green and Eric Ambler, with a bit of Orson Welles thrown in for good measure, and you get something of an idea of what's waiting for you here. Where I find a Furst story lacking is in the fact that his protagonists always seem to be carried forward by external forces, rather than internal ones. And while this is surely due at least in part to the WWII setting and the relative powerlessness of any individual to do much to fight the inevitable, it does tend to give a sense that the novelist is somewhat adrift along with his protagonist. And while this "falling into" approach to story development might work well for some, I find it a bit on the passive side. no reviews | add a review
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Fiction.
Suspense.
Thriller.
Historical Fiction.
HTML:“Kingdom of Shadows must be called a spy novel, but it transcends genre, as did some Graham Greene and Eric Ambler classics.”—The Washington Post Paris, 1938. As Europe edges toward war, Nicholas Morath, an urbane former cavalry officer, spends his days working at the small advertising agency he owns and his nights in the bohemian circles of his Argentine mistress. But Morath has been recruited by his uncle, Count Janos Polanyi, a diplomat in the Hungarian legation, for operations against Hitler’s Germany. It is Morath who does Polanyi’s clandestine work, moving between the beach cafés of Juan-les-Pins and the forests of Ruthenia, from Czech fortresses in the Sudetenland to the private gardens of the déclassé royalty in Budapest. The web Polanyi spins for Morath is deep and complex and pits him against German intelligence officers, NKVD renegades, and Croat assassins in a shadow war of treachery and uncertain loyalties, a war that Hungary cannot afford to lose. Alan Furst is frequently compared with Eric Ambler, Graham Greene, and John le Carré, but Kingdom of Shadows is distinctive and entirely original. It is Furst at his very best. Praise for Kingdom of Shadows “Kingdom of Shadows offers a realm of glamour and peril that are seamlessly intertwined and seem to arise effortlessly from the author’s consciousness.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times “Subtly spun, sensitive to nuances, generous with contemporary detail and information discreetly conveyed. . . . It’s hard to overestimate Kingdom of Shadows.”—Eugen Weber, Los Angeles Times “A triumph: evocative, heartfelt, knowing and witty.”—Robert J. Hughes, The Wall Street Journal “Imagine discovering an unscreened espionage thriller from the late 1930s, a classic black- and- white movie that captures the murky allegiances and moral ambiguity of Europe on the brink of war. . . . Nothing can be like watching Casablanca for the first time, but Furst comes closer than anyone has in years.”—Walter Shapiro, Time. No library descriptions found.
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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