BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture The Polish Officer - Furst

Has anyone read "The Polish Officer" by Alan Furst? I know it is available in both Polish and English. I am about half way through - it is not a long book but not one to read in one or two sittings.

From the backcover
"September 1939. As Warsaw falls to Hitler's Wehrmacht, Captain Alexander de Milja is recruited by the intelligence service of the Polish underground. His mission: to transport the national gold reserve to safety, hidden on a refugee train to Bucharest. Then, in the back alleys and black market bistros of Paris, in the tenements of Warsaw, with partizan guerrillas in the forzen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbor during an attack by British bombers, de Milja fightsd in the war of the shadows in a world without rules, a world of danger, treachery, and betrayal."

Chris
From the cover summary it sounds a good book. I must look out for it (in English!)
Hope all goes well with you
Leslie
ps I have some more photos on Webshots.

I used to love and read such stories when I was a teenager. Later, when I licked more history, they started to unnerve me. I prefer pure documentary today. It should be written in an interesting, even funny way, but must remain a documentary.

PS. Besides, Alexander isn`t a typical Polish first name, not to mention surname Milja, which sounds Serbian to me.

If I were to write about a Polish officer, I would decide on a typical Polish name e.g. Karol Szymanowski.
or Stanislaw Mikulski.
or Jerzy Radziwillowicz.
or Bronislaw Malinowski.
or Bogusz Bilewski.
These are traditional, true, patriotic Polish names. Not some Milja. It sounds awkward.

PS. I always used to laugh when reading fiction about Poland by foreign authors. They concocted so incredible situations which made Poland as magical and mysterious as Camelot.

When I was a child, and my aunts spoke to me of Poland, that is exactly how I thought of it - mysterious and unknowable.

That is a typical impression of ours when we don`t know much about a country or a place. We must create some image, so we refer to stereotypes or, in case there aren`t any, we use imagination. And our imagination is so fruitful......

But there is no magic in Poland, believe me. It is a normal, medium-sized country in Central Europe which is trying to make some progress after centuries of turbulent history. That`s all.

Jerzy, Igree, often while reading some fiction where Polish plot appears, a "Polish" name is mentioned or some city I find it soooo weird, unnatural, having nothing to do with real Poland. It sometimes makes me laugh but sometimes irritates me, the latter happening more often, I must admit.

Yeah, normal. Funny. My Poland is not normal. At least not quite normal. :-)

Greetings
Yanc

I guess Jerzy meant that it's not magical or romantic, just a country.
About its crippled political and social life - I agree.

I have yet another opinion.
First - Poland has quite normal and political life. Especially if we take into account that it is only 16 years since Poles speak with their voice and learn how to form the state of citizens.
Second - Poland has some mystery and romantisim that many other places under the Sun that I know do not have. If anyone of you doubts that - please refer to the number of poets in Poland and a general attitiude to poetry. For those especcially interested and reading in Polish : In one of the last Plus Minus of 'Rzeczpospolita' newspaper there was a long interview with Adam Zagajewski, a poet who spent many years on emigration and now lives in Krakow (just as many other who have returned) were he gives more insight about Polish unique (yes, UNIQUE) traits re: romantisims, mysteriousness etc. What is more: we ARE a distant and unknown country for the major part of Anglo-Saxon world, time to acept it. And, as I see it, nothing to worry about - the Anglo-Saxons are not 'the navel of the world'in spite of what it seems to them <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
ANd besides this little Polish specialite, clearly obvious to me, we are quite normal in the meaning ponitef out by Jerzy.
Just my trzy grosze to keep the discussion running <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I admit that the name of the main character put even me off a bit - but when I read the first chapter I was intrigued enough to buy the book (plus I had that looooong flight. I admit that I have not read that many books with a Polish plot - so they are all new and fresh for me and that is why I wanted to ask about the book here. If you go here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0375758275/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-9436009-6444639#reader-link
you can read the first few pages. I would only ask that rather dismissing it out of hand - read these pages first and offer alternatives if possible.