Antoine Bloye [Hardcover]

Paul Nizan (Author), Edmund Stevens (Translator), Richard Elman (Introduction)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Monthly Review Press; 1st Ed. (U.S.) edition (June 1, 1973)
• ISBN-10: 0853452776
• ISBN-13: 978-0853452775
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,772,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Modest dissent, May 1, 2009

By 

Retired Banker (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Antoine Bloye (Hardcover)

Without disagreeing with the previous review, I recall reading this book in the 1970s, when I was still in my 20s. Though not on The Left, I found it immensely moving. I bought several dozen copies to give as gifts to friends, and nearly every one seemed to like it.

Nizan was Sartre's best friend -- a smarter, more literate, and more human version of JPS. Had he not taken a German bullet in the neck during the Resistance, he might have become a major figure in post-war literature.

Highly recommended to men who have serious issues with their fathers.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars More Praised Than Enjoyed, April 3, 2008

By 

Avid Reader (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Antoine Bloye (Paperback)

This is a book assigned to college students who are studying 20th century intellectual history, and that's where it belongs. It's not great literature, although some passages are quite moving. The book's strength (and weakness) is its strong worker-oriented perspective, a reflection of the author's communist beliefs. The problem with the novel is that its lessons are laid on so strongly that if you don't fully agree with them, you lose sympathy with the trials of the protagonist.

The plot: Antoine Bloye is a high-achieving child of a working class railroad worker father and washerwoman mother. Antoine earns his way to prestigious public schools and eventually becomes an important engineer and manager for the railroads. He marries a woman of slightly higher social class, rather than a divorcee of a lower class with whom he's been having a relationship. At the apex of his career, Bloye is in charge of 5,000 or 6,000 men. Commensurate with his career success, Antoine and his dull, suburban wife move into the upper middle class -- ie., going pretty much as far as they can go without being born into the upper crust or being astoundingly talented. Forced into early retirement, Bloye has regrets about paths not taken (the other woman, building stronger bonds with other men, etc.). And he dies of a heart attack.

The author despises the industrial system that employs Bloye, and he uses Bloye's regrets as a way to attack the system. He portrays Bloye's challenges of sympathisizing with his workers, while meeting the demands of his superiors and the faceless stockholders in the railroad. Because Bloye picked the wrong side (management), the author renders Bloye's achievements as meaningless.

However, I simply can't get onboard with the premise that doing your job well is an empty existence. It must have been incredibly challenging to keep early 20th century trains running on time -- and in fact the book does a great job of describing the difficulties. Being one of the railyard workers seems like a crappy job, but being the head of the depot seems like a pretty cool achievement. Yet the author demeans it, and he seems critical of anyone who doesn't leave a lasting footprint on the earth, whatever that means (maybe it means writing a novel).

I kept thinking that playing a significant role in helping the railroads open up France to everyone through quick, safe, and affordable transportation is something to be proud of. So where's Bloye's angst coming from?

Anyway, read "Antoine Bloye" as a period piece and a polemic, but don't expect memorable literature nor philosophy.