Tour War-Torn Europe by Tramp Steamer: Review of Dark Voyage

Dark Voyage by Alan Furst

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I generally enjoy the heck out of Alan Furst's novels. The atmosphere he creates is very immersive, and even when the main character is a bit inscrutable, supporting characters can just send your brain spinning off into the possibilities of their backgrounds and futures.

This volume is one of the most disjointed of Furst's novels I've read. The narrative can jump several days, then backtracking as our PoV character thinks back to how they survived the last cliffhanger. The role of S. Kolb feels a bit like a red-herring, never truly panning out. The ship-board setting feels a bit thinner than wartime Paris common in other volumes.

For all those complaints, I still recommend the book. It was a fun read and a nice break between denser fare.

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Monty's Folly: Review of "A Bridge Too Far"

A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
This account of Operation Market-Garden is considered a classic for a reason. This a pretty comprehensive take on what probably the most complex combined-arms operation of the Second World War. The narrative is well organized, covering all three airborne divisions' actions, leading armored units of Montgomery's 2nd Army, the German forces that opposed them, and the Dutch civilians caught in-between. Even with all this information, the writing is very accessible.

Operation Market-Garden itself was an amazingly complex and ambitious undertaking. German High Command initially discounted reports of massive airborne landings on the Nijmegen-Arnhem corridor because they never expected such an audacious move from the otherwise conservative Montgomery. "A Bridge Too Far" makes the argument that the operation was doomed from the start, mostly due to its complexity and lack of proper intelligence.

Beyond the complexity and intel problems, the communications breakdown, especially with the British First Airborne in Arnhem, ensured that this division would not be able fulfill its objectives. The final collapse in that area including the delayed drop of the Polish Parachute Brigade was a particularly harrowing read.

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'Black Book' and Women in WWII

Paul Verhoeven the director of such pulpy Hollywood movies as Robocop, Showgirls and Basic Instinct has decided to try his hand at WWII movie making back in his native Holland. Black Book follows the adventures of Rachel Stein, a Dutch Jewish woman through the closing years of the war. After the trauma of Allied air raids and betrayal of an escape plan she joins the Resistance. Here she her sexual assets to seduce, and apparently turn, the commander of the Gestapo in the Hague.

I've never been much for Verhoeven's ham-handed stylings. He seems to think that as long has he provides a mixture of sex and violence at regular intervals, he can keep an audience from thinking any deep thoughts about what he has to say. However, Verhoeven is delving into an growing area of WWII study and writing, the role of women in the war, particularly in the various Resistance movements. Vera Atkins and Virginia Hall probably never used sex as weapon in the model of Verhoeven's heroine, but they were certainly formidable opponents to the Nazis and their collaborators.

Is 'Black Book' at all accurate? No. Is it a turning point for Verhoeven to serious matters (a la Steven Spielberg in Schindler's List)? I doubt it. Will it be entertaining and will it sell tickets? Of course.

And maybe someone walking out of the theatre will go and pick up the biography of Elsa Caspers to see how life really was for a female spy in Holland.