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The Underground City: A Novel
by
H.L. Humes
Back in print after nearly fifty years–the acclaimed fiction debut of novelist H. L. Humes, co-founder of The Paris Review
“Immensely intelligent and energetic, intensely dramatic and melodramatic, heroically overwritten yet sharp, insightful, and precise, The Underground City is an astonishing book by a writer of abundant gifts whose resurrection is long overdue.”
–Peter M...more
“Immensely intelligent and energetic, intensely dramatic and melodramatic, heroically overwritten yet sharp, insightful, and precise, The Underground City is an astonishing book by a writer of abundant gifts whose resurrection is long overdue.”
–Peter M...more
Paperback, 768 pages
Published
January 16th 2009
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published December 26th 2007)
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Humes only wrote two novels which may explain why very few people have ever heard of him. I found him accidently on Amazon. Humes was someone who had a lot of potential in his early years. He co-founded the Paris Review and wrote two novels but then he became ill and never published again. The Underground City in one of his two novels and is loosely based on his experiences living in Paris after WW II, the anti-communist furor of the early 1950's and the ambivelance of the French people afte...more
A fine wartime, political thriller with a little bit of a human touch.
The part reserved to the Resistance is particularly enthralling in that Humes is successful in depicting the isolation these guerilla fighters must have felt. While they were free to roam the countryside, it was always as anonymous citizens...this anonymity semmed maddening at times. It serves to underscore the depth of their conviction, even though history has taught that were on the just side, this conviction, ...more
The part reserved to the Resistance is particularly enthralling in that Humes is successful in depicting the isolation these guerilla fighters must have felt. While they were free to roam the countryside, it was always as anonymous citizens...this anonymity semmed maddening at times. It serves to underscore the depth of their conviction, even though history has taught that were on the just side, this conviction, ...more
This is the second time that I've started this book...really well-written but it is VERY LONG. On page 150 and nothing has happened yet.
Ok - I finished it. Or I guess it would be more accurate to say that I gave up, but I think I made it through the actual action, and couldn't deal with the drunken depressing mess that was the last couple of chapters. Here's the quick scoop:
The main character in this book, John Stone, is an American undercover agent who is sent into t...more
Ok - I finished it. Or I guess it would be more accurate to say that I gave up, but I think I made it through the actual action, and couldn't deal with the drunken depressing mess that was the last couple of chapters. Here's the quick scoop:
The main character in this book, John Stone, is an American undercover agent who is sent into t...more
The Underground City by H.L. Humes, co-founder of the Paris Review, is a sprawling beast of a novel. Magnificently overwritten and imbued with a dark sense of dread throughout, the 755-page tome tells the complex story of John Stone, a burned-out American agent working with the French Resistance in the weeks leading up to the Normandy invasion.
The tale opens in Paris a year or two after the war. A Frenchman named Dujardin is facing possible execution for collaborating with the Germa...more
The tale opens in Paris a year or two after the war. A Frenchman named Dujardin is facing possible execution for collaborating with the Germa...more
There is something about a big, weighty book of fiction. If it's not a predetermined classic, you go thru agonies in the first few hundred pages deciding whether to dedicate numerous reading-weeks, maybe a month of your life, to getting thru it. In the case of Underground City, there were red flags galore in the first couple of hundred pages.
Try this :
"Sit down, Lieutenant, while I look at this."
"Sugar, sir ?"
"No, thank you. I like it blac...more
Try this :
"Sit down, Lieutenant, while I look at this."
"Sugar, sir ?"
"No, thank you. I like it blac...more
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The Underground City is from 1958. It was written by a now almost unknown American writer, H.E. Humes. Part of the reason I liked this book is that it was, of all the fiction I read this year, the most "Helprinesque."It's a long, perhaps overlong, tale that contains stretches of beautiful writing and very precise descriptions of people, places, and politics that rival Winter's Tale and A Soldier of the Great War. I
posted some praise of it in this venue back in August and some mig...more
posted some praise of it in this venue back in August and some mig...more
This 700-plus page novel is a 2009 reissue of the 1958 printing of this novel by H.L.Humes, who is one of the founders of the Paris Review. Grand in its scope and themes, the writing style somehow incorporates many of the murky elements of the workings of the French Resistance movement in WWII. Very masterful writing.
This is one of only two novels written by Hume, and it makes me want to seek out the other.
Very thought-provoking.
This is one of only two novels written by Hume, and it makes me want to seek out the other.
Very thought-provoking.
Novel about the French underground and the Allies.
It fit my needs as a book for travel (long, good but not so engaging that I read it before the plane lands, and cheap second-hand copy that I don't mind abandoning).
It fit my needs as a book for travel (long, good but not so engaging that I read it before the plane lands, and cheap second-hand copy that I don't mind abandoning).
I found this to be a great book. I like a good long book that is driven by the character, location, and feeling of the scene other than the plot, and this fits that description. In a way it reminded me of Gaddis, though easier to read, especially because of the time period and disaffection felt by the main characters.
The book is very large in scope and takes on a lot of themes about the effects of wartime on the people who lived through it, as well as those that fought in it. It is ...more
The book is very large in scope and takes on a lot of themes about the effects of wartime on the people who lived through it, as well as those that fought in it. It is ...more
Long and complex. A lot of realpolitik. Excellent.
This book is very well written. It delves into the Communist influences at work in the French Resistance and how involvement with the Resistance left WWII intelligence operatives vulnerable to investigation by the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities. A totally different perspective on that era. But, the author tends to wander in places and the ending is so protracted, I wanted to quit reading! All in all, worth the read though.
This is easily one of the best books I've read. Humes' power of description and his command of language made me feel as if I were watching scenes take place, rather than just reading them. I can still visualize things I read months ago. (It's a long book) This is a fascinating look at the nature of humanity, civilization, war, and what drives us to act, set in the context of WWII in France and its aftermath.
This 1958 book by the cofounder of The Paris Review was recently re-released and is a solid entry in the post-war espionage style novels. The main character is sympathetic yet a little mysterious and the book gives us a fascinating look into the complexities of wartime alliances among the underground in France.
Blew through the first two-thirds of the book, which is where it should have ended. Last 150 pages or so just seem like a waste. The themes in the book were built, explored, some destroyed, most resolved, and then the last third of the book.......
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