Dark Voyage [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Dark Voyage represents something of a departure from Alan Furst's previous series of historical spy novels set in Europe just before and during the Second World War. Typically, Furst's novels are land-based and are set in cafes, bars, and furtive meeting places in Bucharest, Prague, Berlin, and Paris. His protagonists are typically Polish, Rumanian, Russian, and French émigrés or refugees caught in a tangled web of espionage, and counter-espionage as the NKVD and other underground groups do battle with the Nazis. Deceit is the rule, not the exception. It is a world of night and dark shadows.

Dark Voyage, at least on the surface, is a bit different. Dark Voyage is not set amongst the smoky bistros of occupied Paris, Bucharest, or Warsaw. The action is set at sea, on board the M/V Noordendam, a Dutch cargo ship captained by Eric deHaan. The Noordendam, an aging tramp steamer nearing the end of its useful life at sea, is pressed into service by the Royal Navy. DeHaan and his crew and and passengers, including a Polish engineer, a Jewish medical orderly fleeing the Nazis, a beautiful Russian `journalist' fleeing in fear from her Soviet bosses, and others are asked to undertake three missions, each one more dangerous than the last. The Noordendam, repainted and sailing under the colors of a sunken, neutral Spanish merchant ship, the M/V Santa Rosa delivers munitions and supplies to the British Expeditionary Forces in Crete; transports British commandos to conduct a raid on the North African Coast in Tunisia; and then up through the Baltic Sea on a secret mission that could save Britain from annihilation during the blitz.

Despite this difference in setting the essential elements that render Furst's novels so downright enjoyable remain in place. First, Furst has never painted his characters in a superficial black-and-white way. His `heroes' are flawed and their motivation is often as self-interested as those of the `villains'. Furst's evocation of his characters is both subtle and nuanced. The Nazis were, in fact, true villains but the battles waged against them were not always undertaken by knights in shining armor but by incredibly flawed, if well-intentioned human beings. Second, Furst's prose is not at all tendentious or overly self-important. He paints extraordinarily vivid word pictures that capture not just the light but, more importantly, the shadows of a world engulfed in a horrible war. Third, life is not full of happy-endings. Not every story has the type of closure one might hope for. Furst does not go for cheap endings. The story may end, not always happily, but it is clear that the life of his characters will go on. The reader may hunger for more as he or she hits the last page, but for Furst at least, our endings are ahead of us. The war goes on and so must the lives of his characters.

Some have expressed disappointment in this novel or indicated that it does not quite live up to the high standards one has come to expect from Furst. I respectfully disagree. Heightened expectations often lead to disappointment. I think the high expectations one sets for a writer of Furst's caliber often leads to disappointment when each novel is not markedly better than the last. I, for one, enjoyed this book as much as his previous work. The setting and cast of characters was different to be sure but the quality of Furst's writing and his ability to tell a compelling story remains unchanged. I enjoyed this work.

Alan Furst's literary domain is Europe -- mostly eastern and central Europe -- in those few years on either side of 1939, when Europe stood on the brink of World War Two and then plunged headlong into chaos. What is most enticing about Furst's works is that he creates such a convincing atmosphere that breathes with the life of that place and time. I am one of those readers who habitually translate the printed page into mental picture, and in the case of Furst's novels I find the movie playing in my mind to be appropriately in cinematic black and white. I half expect Peter Lorre to be lurking in a dark doorway or Sidney Greenstreet to be behind that beaded curtain.

Alan Furst's new book, "Dark Voyage", is from the familiar period and area -- 1941 Europe -- but there is something of a departure this time around in that the primary setting is a ship, the Dutch tramp steamer Noordendam under the command of Eric DeHaan, ship and captain pressed into the service of the Naval Intelligence arm of the Dutch Government in exile, clandestinely transporting under false colors people and material to wherever orders require. The cast of characters, as always, is a mixture of diverse and uncertain nationalities, appropriate in an era when nationalities themselves were shifting at the whim of events. I found "Dark Voyage" to be a compelling, if episodic, reading experience as the weary Dutch freighter and her weary crew go about the dark business of a shadow war.

Furst's book are not a series, although a minor character in one book may turn up as the central figure in another, and can generally be read without any particular order. And for those of you who are familiar with Furst's novels, yes, Table Fourteen at the Brasserie Heininger in Paris does make its customary appearance.

You have to like this period of time. I don't mean "like" in the sense that it held the permissive excitement of the roaring twenties or the emotional promiscuity of the sixties, but 'like'as in fascinated. Like as in haunted. Like as in troubled.

Additionally, it is the true Armageddon of our memory, of our time. Hitler and Stalin ARE the evil empire and should they be victorious, the world would be oh so different than it is now.

Finally, I think if you read about that time, whether it's the novels of Deaver or Diehl or Woods on the one hand or the extraordinary Beevor's "Stalingrad" and "The Fall of Berlin," or Ambrose' "Easy Company" or Ryan's "D-Day," one gets the sense that for the Europeans, it wan't all black and white and no, John Wayne and Robert Mitchum didn't epitomize it. Nor Metro Goldwyn Mayer.

So Alan Furst brings to the table a series of novels not in black and white but in gray. Where the characters are motivated by doing the right thing but, where is that damn right thing? And how much of this morality do I have to extrapolate? And are there situational ethics that no one's written about? And do my handlers really care if I win or not, or just that I put on "a bloody good show, mate." And what is winning, anyhow? Is it living? On some days, is it just surviving?

Here Eric DeHaan, Ship's Captain, is seduced by Dutch Naval Intelligence. Well, "seduced" implies some volition on his part and clearly, if at all, there is little. His ship, the M/V Noordendam, will be used not so much for tramp steaming but to change it's name to the Santa Rosa, a South American steamer bearing an uncanny resemblance to the Noordendam, and carry men and material to be used against the Nazi effort. Which by now is most of Europe. Captain DeHaan needn't worry about this duplicity because the Santa Rosa, the real one, is stuck in port in South America with repair work taking at a minimum of several months. So right off the bat, you have to know both women are going to go to the same Oscar party wearing the same gown. At some point.

DeHaan sails off to join a British convoy which as you recall from your history is the chickens strolling before the foxes, ripe, target rich plucking for the German Wolfpack. DeHaan's crew is very well described not as misfits but, let's use the current phrase, diverse.

There's actually three stories here, the British convoy trip followed by two others. I didn't mind this. Although loosely related they all carried the common thread of DeHaan sucked along this vortex of espionage that he is uncertain if his handlers understand.

DeHaan is as "everyman" as Captain John Miller in "Ryan" or Lieutenant Winters in "Easy Company." Every once in awhile he wants to ask 'how did I get here?'

Bars on the waterfronts of Alexandria and Lisbon, love affairs with compromised women and friendships with on again off again friends. Like the old gameshow, Who do you Trust?

Excellent work by Mr. Furst. Well worth the read. 5 Stars. Larry Scantlebury

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