Jean Claude Casson, a producer of moderately successful movies, is awakened by news that German forces are attacking. Within days he is conscripted into military service and engaged in filming a documentary on the front line. The French forces crumble and Casson becomes part of the chaotic retreat.
This rapid collapse of France is followed by German occupation. Furst paints a vivid picture of winter 1940-41 in Paris, a remarkably cold winter, made worse by severe food and fuel shortages. Casson survives, but faces the moral dilemma inherent to all living under military occupation. What activities are just and what activities constitute collaboration with the enemy?
Casson reluctantly agrees to carry money into Spain for the Resistance. We travel with him, unprepared for contingencies, essentially naive. With each step Casson is closer to disaster. He survives again, but only to become entangled with German counter espionage efforts.
Jean Claude Casson was not completely satisfactory as a protagonist. He wanders erratically from one woman to another, a behavior shared by key characters in other stories by Alan Furst. His rather sudden deepening love for Citrine was a critical turning point in the plot, but was not entirely convincing. I consequently found the ending abrupt and somewhat implausible.
Despite this reservation, I highly recommend The World at Night. Alan Furst has created a fascinating portrait of wartime France, not the typical picture of resistance fighters destroying bridges, but a more authentic examination of life under occupation. The World at Night is good history as well as entertaining reading.
The main character is complex but is so detached and unopinionated that I found myself not caring about him or the choices that he made. His ennui soon became mine as I soldiered on reading this novel, waiting for something to happen. A hokey escape sequence followed by a maudlin ending left me disappointed.
Looking back, I realize that I came to this book for a spy story and on that basis this novel fails; however, had I come to it to experience what France must have been like under Nazi occupation, then I would rate this book is a smashing success.
