Furst on First in Marymount Manhattan College’s
2002 Best-Selling Authors Series
By Joan Baum, Ph.D.

As Marymount Manhattan College’s irrepressible Writing Center Director Lewis Burke Frumkes puts it, Alan Furst, master of espionage and intrigue, has been called the new John Le Carré– not that there’s anything wrong with the old one. In fact, however, though not as well known, as Carré, Furst, a well published journalist and author, to date, of six published novels (there are more, I don’t acknowledge them), has, with the recent paperback issue of his latest book, Kingdom of Shadows, claimed the spotlight with a shining all his own. His books, centering on Central and Eastern European intrigue in the years 1933-44, are to a growing number of rapt fans an exciting blend of old-fashioned suspense-cum-romance, and authoritative, researched history. As with all fine fiction, Furst’s tales leave readers well informed as well as wonderfully entertained. As much can be said of the author, to judge from his appearance at MMC recently as the opening guest in the college’s Best Selling Authors Series, 2002. He wore learning with wit and grace and charmed with an easy informality.

Furst had just returned from a book tour, the 17th in a two-month period that also included time out for making an Absolut Vodka ad, he whispers, with a delicious sense of conspiracy, making his way to the stage. Tired? No doubt, but not to know it from the lively talk and generous amount of time he spent with an audience that crowded after him into the nearby reception area. Without notes but with a controlled casualness, Furst talked about how story ideas come to him – a chance glance at a column on a Tarot card morphs into a working title that revisits in some way the dark and shadowy world of spies and counterspies. A realization that the Danube extends to Istanbul ignites a new setting (and research). And themes keep emerging as political and moral questions arise in his obsessive reading of early WW II history - why, for example, did Hungary stay out of the war until relatively late? Delighted with his own ignorance, he pursues answers by way of cynical, sophisticated protagonists. Books for our time, it might be said, resonant as they are of an era of idealism, passion, and emotional values. A time of heroes.

Now in its 12th incarnation, MMC’s Best Selling Authors Series runs once a month at 7:30 in the Theresa Lang Theatre. Introducing the event, MMC President Judson R. Shaver called The Writing Center talks a jewel and said he was thrilled to inaugurate the new series.

On February 6, best-selling novelist Rick Moody (Ice Storm, Purple America, Demonology) will speak. For reservations, call (212) 774-0780.#

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