The World at Night: A Novel | Alan Furst | The Debasement of Wartime France

The World at Night: A Novel | Alan Furst | The accidental spy

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The World at Night...

	The World at Night: A Novel Alan Furst Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 34 reviews view larger image
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Paris, 1940. The civilized, upper-class life of film producer Jean Casson is derailed by the German occupation of Paris, but Casson learns that with enough money, compromise, and connections, one need not deny oneself the pleasures of Parisian life. Somewhere inside Casson, though, is a stubborn romantic streak. When he?s offered the chance to take part in an operation of the British secret service, this idealism gives him the courage to say yes. A simple mission, but it goes wrong, and Casson realizes he must gamble everything?his career, the woman he loves, life itself. Here is a brilliant re-creation of France?its spirit in the moment of defeat, its valor in the moment of rebirth.

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The Debasement of Wartime France

One character in "The World at Night" sums it up the best: "One had a few friends, but mostly people were meant to be used, one way or another, and if you weren't born knowing that you had better learn it somewhere along the way." This sort of cynicism typifies the Paris of this novel, where almost everyone is trying to go along to get along, cherishing black market goods and making deals, as necessary, with the Germans to survive. After French soldiers run (and officers drive!) in flight from Wehrmacht troops, idealists, or even patriots, are in short supply. From LeHavre to the Spanish border, corruption permeates half-occupied, half-Vichy, wartime France.

This novel is thus somewhat different from Furst's prior works. For one thing, the hero is neither soldier nor spy, but a film producer reluctantly drawn into the action for ambiguous reasons. Although initially more interested in skirt-chasing, Jean Casson discovers within himself a deep sense of patriotism. When asked to take part in a mission run by the British secret service, he finds himself at odds with the Gestapo and forced to conceal parts of his life from compromised friends.

I agree with other reviewers who noted the flaws in this book. The flight from Gestapo headquarters, among other things, does not ring entirely true. However, Alan Furst's unmatched description of wartime Paris and the heft and complexity he gives to even minor characters more than compensate for any shortcomings.

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The accidental spy

This is only my second Alan Furst book (after BLOOD OF VICTORY), and it brings me closer to understanding why my friends rave about him. The setting is Paris in the first year of the occupation. Furst clearly knows the city, its life, and its people, but what he does best goes well beyond the local color of the occasional French phrase and out-of-the-way locations. By allowing himself generous time to establish the social milieu before the spy story really kicks in, he excellently captures how it must have FELT to be a French professional living through the outbreak of war, the first abortive fighting, and the changing attitudes of the Parisians to the occupiers in their midst. I tend to believe this more than any of the several books about the resistance I have read lately.

The hero is Jean-Claude Casson, a fortyish movie producer, ex-husband, and prodigal lover. His position and relative affluence give him a greater ease of movement than most of his compatriots, and he finds himself respected even by his German contacts. So when people begin to approach him for special favors, he sort of slides into agreement. Before he (or the reader) fully knows it, he has become a part-time agent, recruited by both sides, learning to live by a new code of honor. He is not asked to do much, and what he does do seems relatively simple. There are a few close shaves, but little apparent danger or narrative suspense; in a way, it all seems almost easy. But I think this is probably also true to life, in that such adventures might well start by seeming insignificant until luck runs out; the almost-casual quality of the book is one of its strongest aspects.

Somebody remarked on this site that Furst has a cinematic eye; he writes film noir scenes and romances, the same genre as Casson's movies. The noir quality is beautifully reinforced by the physical presentation of this book, whose cover features period photographs by André Kertész and Brassai and has carefully designed typography. The romance, unfortunately, is less successful; there is little sense that Jean-Claude's return to a former love, the once-great actress Citrine, is significantly different from his other amours -- at least until it comes to matter. By then, one can take it as a given, but not truly feel it. So the subtly ambiguous ending of the book, which largely depends on the strength of this commitment, is not quite as satisfying as it might have been. But it is a small failing in an otherwise fine novel.

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Don't tell me, don't tell me

Among all the men in Paris, Jean Casson would be among the least likely to flee from occupied France in World War Two. A semi-successful, skirt-chasing movie producer, his contacts merit protection under a collaborationist umbrella. By the end of this early novel from Alan Furst, Casson is a marked and hunted man who has no place to go but away from France.

How Casson's world is changed is subtle and murky, like a drizzly, foggy night. He takes an espionage assignment so he can visit his girlfriend. He joins a German-backed syndicate to insulate himself and then realizes if the Allies win he'll be in deep water. Throughout, the lulling calm of Paris-as-usual is slowly revealed to be a web of lies and wiretaps and betrayals.

This work has the usual Furst contradiction of depicting the ordinary man trying to survive and trying to love his country while offering enough violence and heroism to keep the editors and readers happy. Apparently, Furst needs no encouragement to drop in sex here and there.

The ending of the book leaves the reader wondering what Casson will do next. The next book provides an answer, but I haven't read it yet.

I will, so don't tell me. Don't tell me!

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Tough Times In Paris

Furst is in his old stomping ground of World War II here. Jean Casson, movie producer and reluctant fighter finds himself pinched between the storm troopers and the Paris he used to enjoy. Furst clips his sentences in a unique style that helps to keep the book moving. Just the same, I was hoping for a little more plot. That said, I always enjoy a Furst book for the history, the atmosphere and fully developed characters.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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