The Polish Officer

The Polish Officer is the third of Alan Furst’s historically authentic espionage novels set in 1930s and 40s Europe. His previous two novels, Night Soldiers and Darkstar, dealt with Eastern Europeans being squeezed by the competing demands of fascism and communism for the destiny of their souls. And while these novels are not part of a “series” featuring recurring protagonists, the length, breadth, locales and timing of the historical events do lead to some characters crossing paths or some shared incidents between the books.
The Polish Officer is not a light novel. Nor are any of Furst’s historical novels. Alan Furst is writing for the thoughtful reader who appreciates authenticity and literary descriptive prose. The casual reader looking for fast-pacing and a shootout on every page will find Furst’s style tedious. But unlike Night Soldiers and Darkstar, which are lengthy and tend to meander all over the pre-WWII espionage landscape, The Polish Officer is a tighter story with a straight-forward plot about one man’s mission to save his country’s independence by fighting an asymmetric clandestine war against both of her enemies. And for Poland in WWII, those two enemies were Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany.
Captain Alexander de Milja is the Polish Officer of the title. He is a bourgeoisie, junior officer cartographer on the Intelligence Staff of the Polish Army in pre-WWII Poland. Poland’s entire history has been one of struggle for independence against her giant neighbors, Russia and Germany. Between the World Wars, Poland enjoyed a renaissance of independence, and critical to maintaining that was the development of a strong intelligence network to which de Milja is marginally involved. But as Germany surges across Poland from the west and Russia masses on the east, de Milja is hastily recruited into the clandestine service.
The rest of the novel is about de Milja’s roles as saboteur, covert operator, refugee, undercover spy in Paris, and his final return to Poland and escape into the countryside. It’s a novel that manages to touch on all the desperate efforts by expatriate Poles to fight for their nation anyway and alongside anyone who was willing to help. The novel ends on an ambiguous note. There may be more to the story or not, it all depends on Alan Furst. But for those who are familiar with Polish history there is the knowledge that our hero’s efforts are all in vain. The allies will sacrifice Poland on the altar of their alliance with the Soviet Union. Stalin is the only one who won the battle for Poland… at least for the next 45 years of Cold War history… but that’s for another novel.
Alan Furst is such a fantastic prose constructionist. He writes just enough and let’s the thoughtful reader fill in the blanks. And if you are a thoughtful reader, this book is a joy to read. The downside of the novel is that our hero, de Milja, can’t seem to avoid casual sexual liaisons at every stop, despite being portrayed initially as a man devoted to his mentally incapacitated wife. That the high stakes game of espionage also lends itself to risk-taking in one’s personal life is a well-known fact. But as a former intelligence officer myself, I can assure you, most espionage does not include the sexual athleticism displayed by Roger Moore in all those Bond movies. It’s a stereotype that doesn’t quite fit the middle-class, conventional cartographer, de Milja. And de Milja himself often complains that, as a mere cartographer, his personality is not suited to clandestine work. Well, it’s apparent from the plot that he is. The inner conflict between the “concerned, insecure” de Milja and the smooth-operator he is as a spy simply doesn’t ring true. Finally, Alan Furst is a Franco-phile who really loves Paris. He is wise enough to depict the WWII era French as they really were, but the story sometimes expends way too much energy in the salons of Paris. Most of the action-oriented Poles in exile joined the Free Polish Army or Air Forces and got into the fight. De Milja never seems to think to join his compatriots for a more direct-action role.
Despite these flaws I really did enjoy this book and mark it HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Especially if you like authenticity and want to learn more about the European social order that created the conditions for WWII. Furst includes a study guide and some thoughtful notes at the end of every novel. These are gold for those who want to learn more.
If you can overlook the book’s minor flaws, then please climb aboard, and join others like me on a fantastic trip through Alan Furst’s noir underworld of vintage European espionage. Enjoy!

I must begin by confessing that I am a huge fan of Furst. I read everything he writes. Why? In part it is the time period and In part it is because I have lived and/or travelled in all of the places that figure so highly in his detailed sense of place. And it is the sense of place that attracts me the most in all fiction. Furst recreates the tension, cruelty, courage and diversity of cultures of wartime Europe in all of his novels. This one follows much the same formula as others. His ability to capture flawed but essentially heroic spies is simply delicious and thereby credible. By the magic of skilled storytelling the reader gets to know these participants in the game of defeating the Nazi regime. If the reader is willing to surrender to the narrative art of Furst, it is possible to be transported as if by time travel to another place and time and in that transported status come to see and feel what was at stake in those desperate days of the period. And at stake was whether or not this one lived or died and if allowed to live, what it meant to sacrifice everything in order to make a small gesture of courage that might result in the denigration of the evils wrought by Hitler’s minions. In the midst of this cauldron, ordinary people eat, drink, engage in romantic liaisons and are also betrayed with horrendous consequences. All of this applies to the protagonist “Polish Soldier’,” an unlikely actor put to the test when no other would do. Finding a pathway into the reader’s heart, he becomes a fictional but real brother. A brother we never had but would seek to emulate, were we to be thrust into the fray.

The Polish Officer is book three in Alan Fursts (currently) twelve book series set in the early days of WWII. I read the first one and was very impressed an interesting story and sublime writing and I was anxious to read some more. The second book, however, was sort of a letdown. The fantastic writing was there, but the story was interminable, making it difficult to maintain my interest. This third book is slightly disappointing in a different way.

The book isnt exactly about one thing in particular; rather, it is about just what the title says: a Polish officer. Is that bad? Well, yes, in a way it is. The book begins in 1939, when Poland has just recently been occupied by Germany and is facing attack by the Russians. It opens with army captain Alexander de Milja being given a choice: go to the front (and die) or join the underground intelligence effort. His decision is obvious, and so begins his career as a spy. But heres the rub. The guy moves from job to job, making this more a collection of short stories rather than a book with a plot.

De Miljas first assignment is to assemble a train, secrete Polands entire gold reserve within its cars, camouflage the job by filling the train full of civilians, and get the thing to Romania before the Germans or the Russians or partisans or bandits steal it. He gathers train cars, an engine, and a crew, loads the gold, then stuffs the cars with people who are desperate to get away. The train departs the station; some bad guys stop it; there is a shootout; the train makes it to Romania. Mission accomplished. That story line dies right there, never to be heard from again.

Then de Milja gets another assignment. Then another, and another. And then he goes off to Russia to meet some partisans in order to free a political prisoner. He meets a girl, the truck breaks down, and the book is over. No resolution, no closure. Again, this book isnt about anything in particular. It is a series of vignettes, all set in wartime Europe, all featuring the same Polish officer. We meet lots of people, most of whom are disposable, although there are a few characters who seem to weave in and out between scenes. We spend a lot of time reading about things that really dont matter. And sometimes we visit places or people who played a part in a previous book. But mostly this is a set of short stories with nothing in common except the main character.

This procession from one plot or idea to another (on one or more occasion within the same paragraph) creates considerable consternation for the reader, but encountered more frequently is a different source of irritation. The author has a penchant for starting a topic by leaving out the first few sentences. You will be merrily reading along, engrossed in whatever thing is taking place at the time, only to suddenly encounter different people doing something else entirely. Reading this book is like listening to a record with lots of different tracks that skips a lot.

The sole redeeming element is the authors wonderful writing style. Furst is able to capture thoughts and place them on paper as clearly and vividly as Rembrandt or van Gogh. The writing itself is a pleasure to read, and once you catch on to whatever is going on at the moment, it mitigates at least some of the irritation you experience when the story shifts from one thought to another. I imagine I will tackle book four someday, but if this theme persists, I will not make it to the end of the series.

By the author’s own assent this is his best book. Gripping, beautifully written, perfectly plotted, I read it again and again with pleasure and awe. Perhaps not considered as high literature as something like Carre, I would choose this a hundred times over. An exceptionally evocative, moving story that is almost certainly the best novel written about WWII.

The Polish Officer follows Alexander de Milja, an officer in the cartography section of Polish Military Intelligence, for several years from the Nazi invasion of Poland. On the cover, there are quotes detailing it as one of the best books of the year. I dont know if Id assign it quite that level of quality, but I very much enjoyed it.

Other reviewers have praised this book for not being episodic – I thought it was. Rather than one over-arching storyline, which I was expecting, the book is really a series of little vignettes, each detailing a mission or space between missions. The women in the book, too, are just temporary characters, passing through for a while. It made the characters hard to care for, but perhaps the point of the book wasn’t to engender too much empathy.

This was the first Alan Furst book that I have read it only took me a day to finish. Despite the unexpected structure, it wont be my last.

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