By Jean Lartèguy.
This novel was recommended to me by a friend as being an accurate portrayal of the decline of French colonial power. It deals with a group of French officers of the parachute regiment who survive defeat at Dien Bien Phu and struggle there after to come to terms with the changing world in Algeria.
Its a typically French book with emphasis placed on unanswerable existential questions, though posed from a quintissentially French military perspective. None of the various officers plays a central role to the plot and in essence they are collectively the main character of the story. One is the overall commander of the unit, another is an aristocrat. A third is the jaded son of a colonial magnate and a fourth is a communist. One is black, another Arabian. Thus, these various characters, all united by their experince of being captured by the Viet Minh, intertwine to form the basis of the narrative.
The story is interesting in that it poses some questions regarding the use of torture for a noble reason (according to Wikipedia the book is the first novel to pose such questions) and thus has a certain relevence to the contemporary political debate regarding Guantanamo Bay. Its also accurate in its historical and political observations, though some what biased. The actual story is boring, no doubt because the book is not about any one person or incident and unless you have a very specific interest in the mental processes behind the French military's inability to prevent the loss of its colonies, then there isn't much to read about here. If you are interested in such things though, then this is a good book for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment