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pinwheeling's review against another edition
4.0
this was actually awesome! i like to think i'm too good for spy novels but this was SO GREAT and atmospheric give me this film please.
writerlibrarian's review against another edition
4.0
One of my favourite Alan Furst's novel I've read so far. This is the life of Alexander de Milja, Polish officer that chooses to live and fight after Warsaw is taken and Poland is no more in 1939.
That train ride in the opening chapter was just... yeah. Alexander is one interesting lead character so far my favourite even more than Mercier which I liked a lot. This novel is really a tale of survival by your wits, your will, determination to not let them win even if it means ultimately your life. More spy games than The Spies of Warsaw, the reader is inside Alexander's head as he fights back gathering intel for the British and running into the preparation of operation Sea lion.
There is a lot to love in this one.
That train ride in the opening chapter was just... yeah. Alexander is one interesting lead character so far my favourite even more than Mercier which I liked a lot. This novel is really a tale of survival by your wits, your will, determination to not let them win even if it means ultimately your life. More spy games than The Spies of Warsaw, the reader is inside Alexander's head as he fights back gathering intel for the British and running into the preparation of operation Sea lion.
There is a lot to love in this one.
williamc's review against another edition
4.0
The Polish Officer, like Night Soldiers and Dark Star, is good for its picturesque detail and rich understanding of the deep ties and rivalries between European states during World War II. But what makes each of these novels excellent is the infusion of stories within stories, of the heroes among millions, who give to the inhuman scale of war a believable realism. In The Polish Officer, you find these stories in a seventeen-year-old Polish girl working at a wireless transmitter in a Paris warehouse. You find a gangly, bookish bomber pilot who unwittingly leads an attack to thwart the German landing at Dover. Furst is an amazing author and The Polish Officer is an awesome book.
darwin8u's review
4.0
There are certain historical truths that can only be teased out of the past with a fiction narrative build on the skeleton of the past. There are hidden truths that are exposed only with a story, with fiction, with literature. Alan Furst's war and pre-war espionage novels do that. His novels flesh out more about the people who fight, suffer and die in war than most straight academic histories can ever hope to give to the reader.
You finish an Alan Furst novel tasting the blood and the smoke, body black with soot, blinded by the fiery lights, frozen by the cold, heart sick by all the death of war. Into this setting, Furst inserts little glimmers of caritas, humor, and love. He isn't prepared to make the entire world, even a world that is mewed in the machinery of war, devoid of humanity. There are flowers to smell, food to enjoy and even soft women to touch. It is sad but beautiful and that is sometimes just enough.
You finish an Alan Furst novel tasting the blood and the smoke, body black with soot, blinded by the fiery lights, frozen by the cold, heart sick by all the death of war. Into this setting, Furst inserts little glimmers of caritas, humor, and love. He isn't prepared to make the entire world, even a world that is mewed in the machinery of war, devoid of humanity. There are flowers to smell, food to enjoy and even soft women to touch. It is sad but beautiful and that is sometimes just enough.
rosseroo's review
5.0
Short on plot, this book follows the title character as he leaves his normal life as an army cartographer behind to become a spy and resistance fighter in Nazi-occupied Europe. The book unfolds in a series of acts, starting with his unit's dissolution in late 1939 and his subsequent underground work in Poland. The bulk of the book then describes his work in occupied France before a final brief action in Ukraine. Furst is outstanding at portraying individual assignments and actions, making them come alive with outstanding period detail. Wisely, he doesn't try too hard to link the various acts into a larger story, other than that of the title character. The ending is left open for continuation, which might bother some readers, but seemed to me highly appropriate. Furst's description of spycraft, and life behind the lines is highly entertaining and informative, and I'll definitely be looking for other of his books. If you like Philip Kerr's Berlin Noir trilogy, you'll probably dig this.
aarnnrdka's review
5.0
I have read about 8 books in the "Night Soldiers" series and this one is my favorite. Alan Furst has a distinct talent for capturing a specific time, place, and overall mood in our western world history. The time is the dawn of the second World War. The place is mainly Europe and Eastern Europe. And the mood is Looming Doom. And I'm not pigeonholing or minimizing Furst's talents in the least. He would most likely be an amazing writer in several genres. But he was born to write about this tragic and often heroic time in our shared history.
And speaking of heroism, I believe that in "The Polish Officer" Furst reaches his hero zenith in the character of Captain Alexander de Milja. He's cool, smart, self deprecating, tough, caring, and most importantly - he's a fast learner. He's tapped by the leadership of the underground resistance and gets thrown into the mix virtually overnight. And even if he doesn't love this new world, he thrives in it. There aren't many Polish heroes in world history, and it feels great to have one who's as cool as Captain de Milja.
One more thing - the opening sequence of "The Polish Officer" is one of the greatest in literature. It can stand completely on its own in any WWII anthology. You'll laugh, cry, bite your fingernails, raise your fist in the air, and if you don't already, you'll wish you had some Polish blood in your veins.
And speaking of heroism, I believe that in "The Polish Officer" Furst reaches his hero zenith in the character of Captain Alexander de Milja. He's cool, smart, self deprecating, tough, caring, and most importantly - he's a fast learner. He's tapped by the leadership of the underground resistance and gets thrown into the mix virtually overnight. And even if he doesn't love this new world, he thrives in it. There aren't many Polish heroes in world history, and it feels great to have one who's as cool as Captain de Milja.
One more thing - the opening sequence of "The Polish Officer" is one of the greatest in literature. It can stand completely on its own in any WWII anthology. You'll laugh, cry, bite your fingernails, raise your fist in the air, and if you don't already, you'll wish you had some Polish blood in your veins.
mathewsnyder's review
5.0
For the last few years, I’ve become increasingly interested in WW2. I’ve read some non-fiction books on the OSS. I drive my wife crazy with World War II magazine purchases at the grocery story. Naturally, I sought out the best I could find in WW2 fiction.
I found it in Alan Furst. About a year ago, I discovered his work and bought several novels. He has several mysterious and appealing novels. I even recently picked up on in audio CD.
For my first foray, I read The Polish Correspondent. The titular character is Alexander de Milja, an aristocrat who becomes an excellent spy as he traverses Europe in the wake of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. First, he oversees the smuggling of Polish gold reserves aboard a nondescript passenger train, which de Milja himself selected. The journey culminates in a shoot out with bandits and a mad dash to Romania. But, tellingly, the heroes are as much the Polish commoners aboard the train as they are de Milja. This appears to be a Furst theme.
De Milja later settles in Paris — often the centerpiece of Furst’s tales, I gather — to conduct espionage for the Poles and the English. The likable officer quickly becomes exceptional as a spy and handler. So good, in fact, he out survives his own operatives, like the memorable teenage radio operator whose demise from chomping down on a cyanide capsule matches the bomb with which she kills her SS nemesis. The scene is a wonderful, understated bit of black humor that Furst excels at.
De Milja also has love affairs — alluring, middle-aged European women who keep Alexander at a distance emotionally so that the inevitable partings ache, but only a little.
Finally, the Polish officer is assigned to the Eastern front, a veritable hell on earth. It’s a mission he enters knowing he won’t survive. But, then, de Milja learns to master life as a partisan, too. He completes his futile mission in rescuing a Pole, who later dies. Finally, it’s time for a desperate and cold escape with a Jewish woman whom he saves. Here, de Milja shows again his likable qualities as he sacrifices much to save her (and himself).
De Milja’s a wonderful protagonist — likable, smart, properly cynical when he must be. He’s a very Euro-styled James Bond in a much harsher milieu. But the minor characters surrounding him are just as likable and richly written.
If the novel suffers at all, it’s from its episodic structure. It works nearly as a collection of novellas rather than a novel structure. The train escape, taken alone, is a fine short work. The drama of the final book builds to a climactic prison escape, but then flattens out as de Milja and the Jewish woman flee. As such, the novel survives as a reflection on the troubling nature of war and espionage. While there are exciting scenes, the book is not a thriller. Furst takes his time in parts. In others, he’s wry and sometimes implies the dirty work of war and spying, making the reader understand the remains of violence in a confectioners shop, for one example.
Furst’s writing is rich and detailed, but not overwrought. He captures rich, European details — early war Paris comes alive in his prose. He has a legion of delightful and tragic minor characters, themselves also rich and quintessentially European. All is contained within a novel with a subtler structure than the usual spy thriller. The end result is superb, but will not deliver a quick fix or adrenaline rush.
The Polish Officer: A
I found it in Alan Furst. About a year ago, I discovered his work and bought several novels. He has several mysterious and appealing novels. I even recently picked up on in audio CD.
For my first foray, I read The Polish Correspondent. The titular character is Alexander de Milja, an aristocrat who becomes an excellent spy as he traverses Europe in the wake of Hitler’s invasion of Poland. First, he oversees the smuggling of Polish gold reserves aboard a nondescript passenger train, which de Milja himself selected. The journey culminates in a shoot out with bandits and a mad dash to Romania. But, tellingly, the heroes are as much the Polish commoners aboard the train as they are de Milja. This appears to be a Furst theme.
De Milja later settles in Paris — often the centerpiece of Furst’s tales, I gather — to conduct espionage for the Poles and the English. The likable officer quickly becomes exceptional as a spy and handler. So good, in fact, he out survives his own operatives, like the memorable teenage radio operator whose demise from chomping down on a cyanide capsule matches the bomb with which she kills her SS nemesis. The scene is a wonderful, understated bit of black humor that Furst excels at.
De Milja also has love affairs — alluring, middle-aged European women who keep Alexander at a distance emotionally so that the inevitable partings ache, but only a little.
Finally, the Polish officer is assigned to the Eastern front, a veritable hell on earth. It’s a mission he enters knowing he won’t survive. But, then, de Milja learns to master life as a partisan, too. He completes his futile mission in rescuing a Pole, who later dies. Finally, it’s time for a desperate and cold escape with a Jewish woman whom he saves. Here, de Milja shows again his likable qualities as he sacrifices much to save her (and himself).
De Milja’s a wonderful protagonist — likable, smart, properly cynical when he must be. He’s a very Euro-styled James Bond in a much harsher milieu. But the minor characters surrounding him are just as likable and richly written.
If the novel suffers at all, it’s from its episodic structure. It works nearly as a collection of novellas rather than a novel structure. The train escape, taken alone, is a fine short work. The drama of the final book builds to a climactic prison escape, but then flattens out as de Milja and the Jewish woman flee. As such, the novel survives as a reflection on the troubling nature of war and espionage. While there are exciting scenes, the book is not a thriller. Furst takes his time in parts. In others, he’s wry and sometimes implies the dirty work of war and spying, making the reader understand the remains of violence in a confectioners shop, for one example.
Furst’s writing is rich and detailed, but not overwrought. He captures rich, European details — early war Paris comes alive in his prose. He has a legion of delightful and tragic minor characters, themselves also rich and quintessentially European. All is contained within a novel with a subtler structure than the usual spy thriller. The end result is superb, but will not deliver a quick fix or adrenaline rush.
The Polish Officer: A
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