Customer Reviews

Little Boy Lost

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an amazingly crafted and heart-wrenching tale of a man who lost his wife, a member of the French Resistance, and infant son in World War II... only to discover that his son may, after all, still be alive and living in an orphanage in Normandy.

This book has you sitting on the edge of your seat until the very end. It is very well written, and a very moving story. I think if I said more, I would be giving away too much. Read it for yourself!

This book shows you how bleak France was after the world war. The idea is very realistic and the characters are well thought up. The main character-Hilary-has lost his son. His wife died in France and the boy as left in the care of her close friend, Jean. But Jean was killed and the boy lost. Hilary gets a visit from Pierre who was in love with Jean who says that he would like to look for Hilary's son. So Pierre goes and looks for the boy after the war and Hilary joins him. When Pierre thinks that he has found the boy, Hilary goes to see him and gets mixed feelings about him. But in the end Hilary has to make a decision and it is a decision that will change his life.

Two of the strongest and most thrilling of the novels Persephone Books has reisuued include two by the critic and religious scholar Marghanita Laski: the chilling time-travel novella of confused identity THE VICTORIAN CHAISE-LONGUE and the absorbing postwar comedy of manners THE VILLAGE. Their third Laski re-issue, LITTLE BOY LOST, is not as strong as the other two. The protagonist, Hillary Wainwright, is so ambivalent and ineffectual he deserves his name; while part of the novel's suspense rests in the fact that, in trying to determine whether a war orphan is his own lost son, he may scotch the whole thing because of his egotism and moral weakness, these qualities make him a difficult character to spend an entire novel following. The best thing LITTLE BOY LOST has going for it is its sharp-etched portrait of the dismal quality of life in France after the Nazi Occupation, and here it excels.

A browse in a bookstore can be deceptive. One finds a pleasant-looking book, not too long, and seemingly an entertaining work. ETHAN FROME as authored by Edith Wharton would be a good example. Upon delving into the text, however, the reader of this classic piece of American literature soon discovers that this is not going to be a romp, but a deeply moving experience, best appreciated reflectively. So it is, maybe moreso, with Marghanita Laski's LITTLE BOY LOST.

This is the story of a man in search of his lost child, as well as a search for himself. Both uniquely disappeared in WWII. The carefully planned and developed plot sucks the reader into its movement from the opening scene on Christas day, for some the happiest day of the year, the family feast. The story which was first published over sixty years ago becomes a contemporary page-turner because one comes quickly to care about the main character and his journey. The clever use of symbols and metaphors is cause for the rapid reader to stop, ponder, and appreciate the very human challenge unfolding, as well as the delicious quality of superior prose when savored.

What was it like to live in a less-than-memorable French village after the war? What influence did the war have on the lives of those who lived through it, not in urban centers, but in villages as just-ordinary folks? The response to these interrogatives forms the setting, and one of the major point/ counter-point aspects of the novel. To miss this element of the writing, point/ counter point, is to really miss the challenge and depth of this human adventure.

This is a narrative that will not soon be forgotten.

THOMAS PATRICK HULL, Chicago

I have enjoyed every Persephone book I have read so far. This one is no different.

Hilary marries a French woman during the war and after he briefly sees his baby son, they are separated and his wife eventually dies. He finds out that his son was cared for by another woman who also was taken away and killed and that his son is alive but where oh where is he?

The growth Hilary goes through as a person and as a father is worth reading this book.

Once I started the book, I couldn't put it down.The writer really brings out the many types of casualties of war, from the dead to the traumatized. After reading this book, I wonder how anybody who lived through these events could ever be the same again. I highly recommend Little Boy Lost.

This book seems so modern, yet it takes place just after WWII. It is the story of a poet and intellectual, Hilary Wainwright, who lost his wife during the war and, so he thinks, his newborn son. He left his wife in Paris just as the Germans were moving in, and now after the war he returns to a ravaged France after he's told his son may still be alive in an orphanage in Normandy. It is short, expertly written, moving almost to the point of melodrama (it's only slight flaw, perhaps a feature of the time)and it will have you devouring it in one sitting. I really can't tell more without giving away the simple story line, read it..it's wonderful.

I didn't expect to like this book but I got into it and read it within a few days.. I HATED the ending but not every book is going to have the perfect ending right?

This book was difficult to read because I simply could not find anything to like about the main character Hilary. He came across to me as self-involved and truly a pathetic man. While he experienced a traumatic event in his life, I felt he let that dictate the course for the rest of his life. I feel readers would benefit from having an introduction or foreword added to the book giving some additional background on the history of the time period and attitudes of people living at that time. Our book club selected this book and it did spark some interesting discussion.