The Polish Officer: A Novel
The Polish Officer: A Novel book cover

The Polish Officer: A Novel

Paperback – October 9, 2001

by
Price
$14.79
Format
Paperback
Pages
320
Publisher
Random House Trade Paperbacks
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0375758270
Dimensions
5.2 x 0.65 x 8.01 inches
Weight
7.8 ounces

Description

"Beautifully written, powerfully imagined, and riveting as pure story....The book is a triumph."--Charles McCarry"Brilliantly imagined, vividly drawn, rich with incident and detail....The Polish Officer portrays ordinary men and women caught out on the sharp edge of military intelligence operations in wartime: the partisans, saboteurs, resistance fighters and idealistic volunteers risking their lives in causes that seem lost."--Robert Chatain, Chicago Tribune "[A] riveting ‘pure’ story...wonderfully exact...transcends the spy novel while delivering everything any fan of le Carré could ask for."--Robin Winks, The Boston Globe From the Inside Flap 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 frozen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbor during an attack by British bombers, de Milja fights in the war of the shadows in a world without rules, a world of danger, treachery, and betrayal. 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 frozen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbor during an attack by British bombers, de Milja fights in the war of the shadows in a world without rules, a world of danger, treachery, and betrayal. Alan Furst, an acknowledged master of the European espionage thriller, has produced a stunning achievement in The Polish Officer : dark, evocative, authentic, and taut with suspense. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Pilava Local In Poland, on the night of 11 September 1939, Wehrmacht scout and commando units–elements of Kuechler’s Third Army Corps–moved silently around the defenses of Novy Dvor, crossed the Vistula over the partly demolished Jablonka Bridge, and attempted to capture the Warsaw Telephone Exchange at the northern edge of the city. Meeting unexpected, and stubborn, resistance, they retreated along Sowacki Street and established positions on the roof and in the lobby of the Hotel Franconia, called for dive-bomber attacks on the exchange building, and settled in to wait for the light of dawn.Mr. Felix Malek, proprietor of the Franconia, put on his best blue suit, and, accompanied by a room-service waiter, personally served cognac to the German soldiers at their mortar and machine-gun positions. He then descended to the wine cellar, opened the concealed door to an underground passage originally dug during the Prussian attack of 1795, hurried down Sowacki Street to the telephone exchange, and asked to see “the gentleman in charge.”He was taken up a marble staircase to the director’s office on the fifth floor and there, beneath a somber portrait of the director–pince-nez and brushed whiskers–presented to the officer in command, a captain. The captain was an excellent listener, and the questions he asked inspired Mr. Malek to talk for a long time. Arms, unit size, insignia, the location of positions–he was surprised at how much he knew.When he was done, they gave him tea. He asked if he might remain at the exchange, it would be an honor to fight the Germans. No, they said, perhaps another day. So Mr. Malek made his way through the night to his sister’s apartment in the Ochota district. “And what,” she asked, “were they like?”Mr. Malek thought a moment. “Educated,” he said. “Quite the better class of people.”Mr. Malek had not been thirty years an innkeeper for nothing: the defenders of the Warsaw Telephone Exchange, hastily recruited amidst the chaos of the German invasion, were officers of Polish Military Intelligence, known, in imitation of the French custom, as the Deuxième Bureau. The Breda machine gun at the casement window was served by a lieutenant from the cryptographic service, a pair of spectacles folded carefully in his breast pocket. The spidery fellow reloading ammunition belts was, in vocational life, a connoisseur of the senior civil service of the U.S.S.R., while the commander of the machine gun, feet propped on the tripod, was Lieutenant Karlinski, heavy and pink, who in normal times concerned himself with the analysis of Baltic shipping.The officer in charge, Captain Alexander de Milja, was professionally a cartographer; first a mapmaker, later assistant director of the bureau’s Geographical Section. But Poland was at war–no, Poland had lost her war, and it was clear to the captain that nobody was going to be assistant director of anything for a long time to come.Still, you couldn’t just stop fighting. Captain de Milja stood at the open window; the night air, cool and damp, felt especially good on his hands. Idiot! He’d grabbed the overheated barrel of the machine gun to change it during the attack, and now he had red stripes on his palms that hurt like hell.4:20 a.m. He swept the façade of the hotel with his binoculars, tried–based on the proprietor’s intelligence–counting up floors to focus on certain rooms, but the Germans had the windows shut and all he could see was black glass. In Sowacki Square, a burned-out trolley, and the body of a Wehrmacht trooper, like a bundle of rags accidentally left in a doorway, weapon and ammunition long gone. To somebody’s attic. De Milja let the binoculars hang on their strap and stared out into the city.A refinery had been set on fire; a tower of heavy smoke rolled majestically into the sky and the clouds glowed a faint orange. A machine gun tapped in the distance, a plane droned overhead, artillery rumbled across the river. War–fire and smoke–had made autumn come early, dead leaves rattled along the cobblestones and caught in the iron drain covers.Captain de Milja was a soldier, he knew he didn’t have long to live. And, in truth, he didn’t care. He was not in love with life. One or two things had to be taken care of, then matters could run their course.The director’s telephone was, naturally, of the very latest style; black, shiny, Bakelite plastic. De Milja dialed the military operator he had installed in the basement.“Sir?”“Sergeant, have you tried Tarnopol again?”“Can’t get through, sir. I’ve been up to Wilno, and down to Zakopane, just about every routing there is, but the whole region’s down. We’re pretty sure the lines have been cut, sir.”“You’ll keep trying.”“Yes, sir.”“Thank you, Sergeant.”He replaced the receiver carefully on its cradle. He had wanted to say good-bye to his wife. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • 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 frozen forests of the Ukraine, and at Calais Harbor during an attack by British bombers, de Milja fights in the war of the shadows in a world without rules, a world of danger, treachery, and betrayal.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
30%
(545)
★★★★
25%
(454)
★★★
15%
(272)
★★
7%
(127)
★
23%
(418)

Most Helpful Reviews

✓ Verified Purchase

Intriguing, Authentic Description of Occupied Europe

The reader new to Alan Furst may not immediately recognize that the plot is subordinate to the setting and character development. The Polish Officer, like his other novels, ends somewhat abruptly; the war continues unabated and the fate of his protagonist remains unresolved. Furst sees WWII as a large canvas. This novel, a detailed painting by Alan Furst, only covers a minute spot.

Poland is under coordinated attacks by Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. The story begins as Captain Alexander de Milja is assigned the task of transporting by train Poland's national gold reserves to a location out of reach of Hitler's forces. Not much later, despite fierce fighting by Polish forces, Poland is overwhelmed and de Milja joins the Polish resistance. The setting moves from Poland to Romania to France to the Ukraine as de Milja's situation becomes increasingly insecure. The Polish officer himself no longer has rank, nor an army, nor a country. He does not expect to survive.

Furst's novels excel in two regards: their historical settings are authentic while simultaneously the stories provide unexpected, even unique, perspectives on WWII. In this story we readers experience life from inside an occupied Poland, inside an intimidated Romania, within a surrendered France, and in a brutalized Ukraine. His plots are suspenseful and well-crafted, and yet I recall his stories more for their detailed settings. It is unlikely that I will forget Furst's description of occupied Europe.

The WWII historical novels of Alan Furst offer a richness and authenticity seldom encountered. I highly recommend The Polish Officer. It is among his finest works and is a great introduction to a remarkable author.
139 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Espionage and intrigue in Occupied Europe

Alan Furst has apparently been writing books of this genre for some years now. The plots all take place during the period just prior to World War II, or the during the war itself. Each of the characters is somewhat compromised, morally or otherwise. Here, the main character is Captain Alexander de Milja, a Polish army officer whose main duty, in peacetime, was as a cartographer and intelligence officer. Now that the war has started, he's helping defend Warsaw, but he's soon called away to escort a supply of gold and specie across the border into Romania. From there, his bosses in the military intelligence bureau wish him to spy on the Germans, first in Paris, later in other parts of France and elsewhere. He moves with ease from one theater of the war to another, repeatedly surviving when others around him are captured or killed. He has affairs, makes and loses friends, watches as others are betrayed by traitors, even executes said traitor himself on one occasion.
The one thing the book does extremely well is portray the lives of ordinary people during the war. The author seems to have a view of the mundane populace of an occupied country, and what they do or say or when they go on vacation. When they spy for de Milja, they do so for mundane reasons, for the most part, and their reactions when they get caught aren't heroic, for the most part, either. The novel is told in a series of grays (if they ever make a movie, it'll have to be black and white) with few if any colors in the landscape.
If I have a serious criticism, it's that there really isn't a plot. Instead, the story is basically a series of incidents involving a single individual, and if he'd structured it differently it could be a short story collection, plotwise. That's how connected the various plots are.
In spite of that, I enjoyed it a great deal, and would recommend the book.
50 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Espionage and Resistance in Wartorn Europe

"The Polish Officer" details the adventures of Captain Alexander de Milja, who survives his nation's defeat in 1939 and moves onto resist the Nazi juggernaut as a spy working with the allied powers. De Milja helps smuggle gold, and eventually makes his way to the Ukraine as Nazi Germany attacks the Soviet Union. As usual, Fust has created an excellent novel of espionage and action set amidst upheaval and tension- this time dealing directly with the events of World War Two, rather than the interwar years common to many of his other novels.

Although this novel can easily be read as a stand-alone book, some readers will enjoy beginning their foray into Furst's world with "Night Soldiers", his original and possibly best spy novel. This book introduces several characters who make appearances throughout Furst's other novels set in the same period of time and general geographical local. Because of this fact, I highly recommend reading this novel first, although those that follow can typically be read in any particular order (the exception being the stories involving Jean Casson - World at Night and Red Gold).

What makes Furst's loosely structured series so compelling is that 1; they are very well researched and historical very accurate, especially with regard to spy craft - as I understand it through academic experience only. 2; the characters are extremely flawed, very believable and interesting to empathize with - all of the characters and their adventures provoke much thought. 3; the novels do not attempt to achieve a false sense of conclusion at their end - they always allow the reader to decide for him/herself what happens, and they rarely resolve the feeling of tension that pervades Furst's works. 4; the secondary characters are always very well developed and much more interesting than their sometimes small roles would have the reader believe- so one is always off balance (who will live, who will die - who can be trusted, who cannot?). 5; Furst does an excellent job of setting the atmosphere of terror that resulted from the conflict between fascism and stalinism during the secret wars preceding the outbreak of the Second World War.

You cannot go wrong with this novel. For anyone interested in reading and enjoying spy stories, or stories of world war two, this book is a must read.
38 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A Diamond Still in the Rough

Overall, The Polish Officer has more to offer than most in its genre. The atmosphere of the novel is really strong: dark, gritty, forboding. Furst's expert knowledge of the day-to-day affairs of WWII Europe is first-rate, and adds to the realism.
Beyond that, there were several problems that I found distracting. The main character, deMilja, always seems remote and detached from the reader. I never got a sense of his personality and found myself struggling to stay interested in him.
The book is not a thriller, per se, but there were moments that attempted to be tense. In the execution, however, the tension deflated way too early and I never found myself on the edge of my seat.
Alan Furst has enormous potential, and I'm told that his later novels are much better--that he comes into his own as a writer. One can see his potential in the Polish Officer, which would make a great film: that medium might more effectively capture the emotion, depth of character, and tension that is lacking in the novel.
32 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

BEING THERE

Because of the time period in which he concentrates his fiction, the years leading up to and including World War II, Alan Furst is most notably compared to Eric Ambler. While Ambler is justifiably credited with refining the espionage novel, and wrote superb tales about Europe's pre-war period, there are notable differences between these two stellar authors. Ambler, unlike Furst, wrote tightly wound plots. He also moved with the times, as in his long career, he fictionalized subjects based upon the times in which he lived, writing thrillers on subjects ranging from Soviet Communism to nationalism to arms dealing. As skillful as he was in writing his novels, you always knew as a reader that Ambler was probably comfortably sitting at his typewriter when he spooled out his words. That is not a criticism of his skill as a writer, it is meant merely as an understanding of his style. LeCarre, Forsyth, Deighton, and others share this trait.

On the other hand, from the way his books pitch forward at jagged levels, you can imagine that Furst is not so much a novelist, but an actual observer of the events he depicts. Detailed and character-driven rather than plunging towards an ultimate end, his books seem to be formulated from the notes of a reporter, looking over shoulders, peeking around corners, peering into the edges of darkness and the mindsets of the people who act and suceed and suffer. There may be no espionage writer like him.

In The Polish Officer, Army Captain Alexander de Milja, depressed and not expecting a long life after the Nazis march into Warsaw, goes underground, and engages in several missions in various parts of Europe. He travels sometimes in disguise, recruits personnel, sometimes succeeds, and other times loves and loses. Although the ending is more defined here than in other books by Furst, even on the last page, you instinctively know there will in the future, be another day, another mission, another clandestine battle to be fought. Alan Furst's works do not end neatly, for the midst of wartime is not a place for easy resolution. This is a master work by a master craftsman.
27 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A fantastic story and... Wait a minute, what just happened!!!!?

A man is hired to move a train load of gold from Poland after the initial invasion by Germany. Captivating! And yes, the first 80 or so pages were indeed immersive and wonderful - I had found a new author and I was going to take in all of his writings. I was going to be "In" with Furst.

And then the story ended with a horribly awkward transition right out of the Book Of Hollywood. To clarify: the book did not end. I had 200 or so pages to go. The main character's deliverance of the gold, his adventures in Poland, his interactions with various interesting characters - this story is gone like a whisper. Furst now takes the main character to France with a whole new set of side kicks, the book's motive unclear and literary momentum shattered.

I found it very difficult to accept these abrupt plot changes, of which there were a few more. I plodded through France. I couldn't figure out why the last story that takes place in Russia was even in the book. In between was a story (The Coal Company) that Furst did a wonderful job of building. I felt the tension and spirit of the first 80 pages again and I forgave Furst for his wild plot changes, but he decided to end this particular story in a way that felt very cheap to me. And now we are off to Russian for the most uneventful and emotionless story within this novel. The anticlimactic ending of the book was somewhat expected and therefore not a disappointment. (While on the topic of climaxes, it must be said that Furst makes a fantastic effort to give the main character his fair share of them - queue the smooth jazz).

All this being said, I do think that I will give Furst another chance. There were moments where he captivated my attention and he is very gifted at spinning fiction with history.
15 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Period Piece = Palpable

Alan Furst's series of novels set in 1933-1941 Europe are fantastic on a number of levels: the noir tone of the book, the palpable dread that overlays the whole time period, the complex relationships among people of various nationalities in a highly fragmented continent.
The Polish Officer begins very ambitiously as the protagonist seeks to smuggle Poland's gold supply out of the country in September 1939; the daring exploits result from desperation, necessity, despair, honor, patriotism. The settings are well-drawn and the politics well-researched.
This is a period piece. Furst brings you to the time and place of the action with his writing. It is honest, gritty, and real. The book is not a single narrative, it is episodic -- like intertwined short stories or novellas. Thus the intensity can wax and wane. Nonetheless, if you are interested in the 1933-1941 time frame, espionage, Eastern Europeans under the shadow of war or all of the above, this is fine literature and highly recommended.
12 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

A Trip To Bleakest Europe

"Poland had lost a war, this is what was left." Alan Furst's third novel begins in the bleakest corner of war-ravaged Europe where Poles waited, in vain, for British and French help that would not come. As demonstrated by "Night Soldiers" and "Dark Star," Furst is unmatched when it comes to describing wartime Europe in a detail so fine that the time and place seem to come alive. So, we are not just told that Poland was left to freeze as its coal was shipped off to Germany, Furst writes that "there was ice in Captain de Milja's basement room; a rust-colored stalactite that hung from a connection in the water pipe that ran across his ceiling."

But as the story moves from Warsaw, to Bucharest, to Paris, Furst shows us a different war. The contrast Furst draws between a craven France and a fighting Poland is stark. France may be occupied, but the French in this book (with certain exceptions) are overwhelmingly compromised and cowardly -- and, in return, live better than the hopeless Poles.

This novel is shorter than "Dark Star," and is less dense. Rather than layering complex story lines, Furst moves "The Polish Officer," Alexander de Miljia, through a series of missions in occupied Europe and Russia. This approach does not make the novel any less satisfying. The story of the "Pilava Local," the last passenger train through Poland, is harrowing. The missions against the Gestapo are awe-inspiring. The activity in occupied France -- assisted (finally) by the British -- are also absorbing. If there is any criticism of this novel, it is that the story flags a bit at the end, when de Miljia reaches the western USSR, and it ends on a note that is somewhat more hopeful than events warrant. Nonetheless, the story is riveting overall. A fine entry in Furst's series.
11 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

An instant espionage classic, a historically authentic novel of Poland's desperate, WWII struggle

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!
10 people found this helpful
✓ Verified Purchase

Another Good Book

This is the second book I have read by Mr. Alan Furst. Happily, Random House Publishing is going to backtrack and bring earlier novels by this talented writer to readers. To date, Mr. Furst confines his novels to a relatively brief period of history, from 1933-1945. It is also a period that continues to provide massive amounts of information for historians and writers of historically based fiction. What I particularly liked about this work is that it focused on a Polish Officer, and his work after Poland was attacked and partitioned by Russia and Germany, and then overrun once again by Russia.
Poland lost 18% of its population during WWII, a higher percentage than any other nation. The damage Poland suffered, and the resistance movement it fought throughout the war is less well known than other stories, and less documented in historically based fiction. Mr. Furst explains at the end of the book the resources that he uses to bring his characters to life. He tells what are true stories or amalgams of true stories about those that never made a great name for themselves, and garnered the fame that accompanied such notoriety. His characters are often those who fought on after their countries had fallen, living a day-to-day existence that often ended in an unmarked grave, or a cellar with its attendant horrors. The risks they took were compounded by the methods they used to fight and survive. They wore no uniform, they had none of the protection, however scant, that a uniform would bring. If they went missing it was noted, and then only for a moment.
My interest in the topic helped to overcome what shortcomings the book does have. The book begins on a fairly definitive note, and then reads as though the reader is occasionally checking in with Alexander de Milja. Just as he is forced to move from Poland to France, Spain, and then Poland again, and other locations, the book jumps as well. The problem is the reader does not always jump with Alexander, often it seems as if we bump into him by chance. The book is filled with character vignettes, some are so fleeting that they are barely made note of before they are gone. The character of Alexander is fairly well explained and detailed, however even his fate is truncated almost in mid sentence. The book reaches no conclusion, and unless there is to be a sequel, it never will.
This is not the stronger of the two works I have read, however I will continue to read the books that are to come, for even when the author may not be writing at his best, he is still very, very good.
10 people found this helpful

Related Books