Midnight
in Europe, the latest of Alan Furst pre-WWII era novels,
centers on the bloody Spanish Civil War in 1938 and the work
of a smart, but stateless, emigrant Spanish lawyer named Cristian
Ferrar. Cristian contributes what he can, in his own measured
way, by aiding the Spanish Republican government’s war
against the Fascist backed Nationalists from his base in Paris.
Furst provides us snapshots of some interesting but lesser
known European venues– Gdansk, Odessa, Eastern Mediterranean
and Northern Spain – as Christian travels with his associates
to secure help for the Republicans. Cristian’s believability
as a character is that he is not a typical hero, but merely
an individual contributing his skills, knowledge and assistance
to some shadowy characters to aid the Republican cause in
which he fervently believes.
Midnight continues Furst’s line of novels dealing with
the uncertainties, fears and machinations of people trying
to cope and survive the seismic changes unfolding in Europe
in the late 1930’s. What I enjoyed most about the novel
is that, unlike a number of recent historical novels on the
pre-WWII era in Europe where fictional characters interact
with the famous and not quite famous real historical figures,
Furst paints a world of ordinary but interesting and very
believable characters coping with the swirl of events around
them.
Although there are no strong, in-depth developed characters
in the novel, the parade of characters Furst portrays are
as believable as one would meet in Paris in the 1930’s.
For some, dealing with the current political situation is
a life or death matter, but for many others it’s a matter
of daily survival. There is no driving denouement at the end
that compromises the mood, anxiety and idealism that drives
the storyline. For people who enjoy this period in history,
this is a great read.
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