Blood of Victory

Another of Furst's reluctant spy novels. Serebin has enough of the history of inter-war Europe wrapped up in him to ensure that he has already seen most of what is to come, but continues to strive forward. Again, the motivation is not ideology, but a personal sense of right and wrong.

Alan Furst has written a remarkable series of novels about Europe shortly before WWII. His main characters are minor players in the storm sweeping down upon them. They are fighting to preserve freedom through their espionage and spying. Furst does a marvelous job of character development: you can't help but feel that you are viewing the world through the eyes of frightened people, who have no control over their own destinies, but are doing their human best. And human is a keyword here, for Furst's characters are human. The plots of a Furst novel become secondary, I think, after you've read several. This one is about an attempt to stop the flow of Roumanian oil to Germany. It can't be faulted. But the plot in a Furst novel isn't really important. The plot is well-crafted, but it's the people, the characters who carry the weight. Jerry

No one writes about the spy game right before and during WWII in Central and Eastern Europe like Alan Furst. His spare prose, almost poetic at times, conveys quite quickly the murky world of intelligence operatives. We see the dark underbelly of Europe, with the furtive meetings and the casual betrayals inherent in this type of work. The characters are, as always, extremely well-drawn, even the very minor ones. Often the real plot line gets lost, but it doesn't really matter, because of the quality of the writing. The reader is hooked from the beginning, and turns page after page as quickly as possibe, to see how everything develops. There are some old friends from previous books in this one, and some locations that we've seen before, and that adds to the authentic feel of the work. I look forward quite eagerly to every Furst book, and hope that he writes and publishes them for many years to come!

This is one of those novels that stays with you for weeks after you've finished it. Like any novel by John LeCarre, you have to work at an Alan Furst novel. It doesn't necessarily come easy.With the poetry of James Burke at his fingertips, and the haunting portrait of Europe under fire, the truthfully global loss of innocence, Furst begins with a tale that is fascinating for rich, human characters, then for the geography, and finally for the plot. It reminded me of those grainy photographs taken in European train stations in the mid 1930's when people literally ran for their lives.Ilya Serebin is not interested in war, but as Trotsky wrote, "war might be interested in [him.]" And it is.On escape from beseiged Russia and communism, torn between a safehouse in Paris and his conscience, reluctant to leave a dying lover and a new one playing the deadly game he has been ante-upped for, Serebin is recruited by the OSS to asssist in a "cockleshell heroes" attempt to block the oil route ('oil, the blood of victory' from which the title is taken] from Romania to Nazi Germany.It is a classic WWII novel of love, betrayal, confusion and sadness. Despair. Melancholy. I can't recommend Alan Furst enough. He may not be your cup of tea or shot of vodka because of the subject matter, but his writing is brilliant. You get a feel of "real" to the story.

At the start of WWII a Russian expatriate tries to prevent Hitler from accessing oil from Ploesti, Rumania. Unburdened by complete sentences or "Joe said ... Mary replied," Furst clearly and credibly describes the settings, from the streets of Paris to a highway carved into a rocky mountainside in Rumania; feelings, from snuggling in bed with a lover, to wondering whether passersby are enemy agents or strollers; and events, as plans are developed and executed with many detours and feints. That the outcome of the war is known does not detract from the suspense of the plot. One can virtually smell, taste and feel what the characters are experiencing. A totally satisfying reading experience.