Alan Furst discussion

Furst's stories have clearly evolved. The earlier books tend to show longer stretches of characters' lives, which establishes strong emotional ties to them. But the stories are kind of shaggy dogs. The energy ebbs and flows. The later books have tighter storylines. We see narrower slices of characters, though, with less back-story and development. And the lead characters tend to start seeming fairly similar--early- to mid-40's, fairly solitary, hard for interesting women to resist, but still profiled as "common" guys swept up by the tides of history.

Eric wrote: "Furst's stories have clearly evolved. The earlier books tend to show longer stretches of characters' lives, which establishes strong emotional ties to them. But the stories are kind of shaggy dogs...."

I love his writing and get very impatient for his annual contribution to arrive. Your last sentence is on the money - I'd like to see a bit more variation, perhaps a crusty character, or someone at the end of their life? Or who loses his life. I suspect Furst creates characters who he sees as alter egos of himself, but I'm unsure if this 'sameness' is a weakness or not.

I agree, I can't say that the "sameness" of his lead characters really diminishes the pleasure I get from reading his new books, or even rereading old ones. I'm halfway through reading all of them for a second time, and this feature is apparent but not (yet) disappointing. The story lines are so absorbing that my attention goes mostly there. I do like the idea of a character clearly and significantly different from the type we've come to know and expect.

Excellent interview, I liked that. Thanks for linking.

I absolutely love his books.

I find they go up and down, but overall each one is very good. "Dark Voyage" was right on for describing life aboard ship. I would love to find more information about life in Europe from 1938 and 1939.