Rumple Foreskin
The AH Patriarch
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2002
- Posts
- 11,109
Alan Furst has written a series of best-selling spy novels set in Europe before and during WW II. His protags have included a reporter/spy for Pravda, a Polish officer, the Dutch captain of a tramp steamer, and a dissolute Parisian filmmaker (Is there any other kind?).
One of the strengths of his novels is their gritty, unromactic realism and rich atmosphere. Just ‘cause I like his stuff and wanted to share it with the AH, here are the descriptions of a minor and major character from his recent book, Dark Voyage.
Even if “spy novels” aren’t your thing, check him out.
Rumple Foreskin
ps: I transribed this from an audio recording so could only guess ar some of the punctuation. rf
==
The desk clerk sat behind a wire cage, worry beads in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and beneath his tasseled fez, a mean eye. “Who the hell are you? She is not here,” he said.
==
Across the little table, she was much as he remembered her, though now he realized she was older than she was in his memory. No one would ever call her pretty, he thought, but you would look at her. A broad, determined forehead, high cheekbones, eyes a severe shade of green, almost harsh. A small mouth, down-curved, ready for anger or disappointment. Thick hair, a dull shade of brown, like brown smoke, swept across her forehead and pinned up in back.
She wore a pale gray suit and a dark gray shirt with a wide collar, shapeless and lax, as though worn for a long time, and carried a heavy leather purse on a shoulder strap.
But the detail that stood out, above everything else, was the presence of some inexpensive and very powerful scent—the sort of thing to use if you were unable to bathe.
He took out his packet of North States and offered her one.
“Yes, thank you,” she said.
Even in the cellar gloom of the coffee shop he could see shadows beneath her eyes. And when she held the small cigar to his match, her hand trembled.
One of the strengths of his novels is their gritty, unromactic realism and rich atmosphere. Just ‘cause I like his stuff and wanted to share it with the AH, here are the descriptions of a minor and major character from his recent book, Dark Voyage.
Even if “spy novels” aren’t your thing, check him out.
Rumple Foreskin
ps: I transribed this from an audio recording so could only guess ar some of the punctuation. rf
==
The desk clerk sat behind a wire cage, worry beads in one hand, a cigarette in the other, and beneath his tasseled fez, a mean eye. “Who the hell are you? She is not here,” he said.
==
Across the little table, she was much as he remembered her, though now he realized she was older than she was in his memory. No one would ever call her pretty, he thought, but you would look at her. A broad, determined forehead, high cheekbones, eyes a severe shade of green, almost harsh. A small mouth, down-curved, ready for anger or disappointment. Thick hair, a dull shade of brown, like brown smoke, swept across her forehead and pinned up in back.
She wore a pale gray suit and a dark gray shirt with a wide collar, shapeless and lax, as though worn for a long time, and carried a heavy leather purse on a shoulder strap.
But the detail that stood out, above everything else, was the presence of some inexpensive and very powerful scent—the sort of thing to use if you were unable to bathe.
He took out his packet of North States and offered her one.
“Yes, thank you,” she said.
Even in the cellar gloom of the coffee shop he could see shadows beneath her eyes. And when she held the small cigar to his match, her hand trembled.
