From Publishers Weekly
Like Calaferte's (1928-1994) previous novel newly available in English, The Way It Works with Women, this story about the brutal course of WWII in provincial France is told entirely through impressions and dialogue. The unnamed narrator is a young orphan boy who lives in a village with a "skinny little woman" and "the big man of the house." The boy becomes aware that war has broken out when the tocsin sounds one September afternoon. The conversation among the adults is filled with words and concepts he does not understandAthe portentous comparison with the "war in '14," bombardments, civic duty and communism. Gradually, the situation becomes more dire, as strangely dressed transports (Alsatian Jews) arrive in the village and the peasants' horses are requisitioned by the army. Without explanation, the narrator moves to a larger town and lives with a widowed dressmaker named Mama Guite. There, entering adolescence and working in a warehouse, he witnesses the escalating atrocities inflicted by the occupying Germans, the local vigilante thugs in the collaborationist Milice, and the racist mob blindly devoted to Marshal P?tain. The boy does what he can to survive, losing his innocence in the process. In compact and visceral detail, Calaferte succeeds in portraying this terrifying and shameful period in French history, when nearly everyoneAespecially seemingly innocent villagersAis guilty of crimes against humanity. (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Narrated by an 11-year-old boy in provincial France, this novella from playwright and poet Calaferte presents the French experience of World War II from the outbreak of hostilities through the Occupation to the eventual liberation by the Americans. The boy has neither identity nor family and lives essentially hand to mouth. His emotions range from na?ve confusion (not even understanding what Jews are) to a growing awareness of evil as he does what others tell him to do. The utter horror of war is revealed as he graphically describes what he sees and what he hears people say. Black market corruption and the readiness of women to save themselves by using sex are detailed. Though the setting is World War II, the description of the misery of war could easily be transposed to more contemporary settings. Recommended primarily for academic audiences.AAnn Irvine, Montgomery Cty. P.L., Silver Springs, MD
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
