Sorj Chalandon - Enfant De Salaud (Grasset, 2021) ****½

Op een heel elegante en slimme manier verweeft Chalandon het proces tegen Gestapo-leider Klaus Barbie met het leven van zijn eigen vader die als collaborateur mee heulde met de nazi's en het Vichy-regime van Maarschalk Pétain. Net zoals in andere van zijn romans, is de relatie met zijn manipulatieve, leugenachtige en gevoelloze vader de drijfveer voor het schrijven. De ik-figuur gaat graven in het verleden en in gerechtsarchieven van het eind van de Tweede Wereldoorlog om de geschiedenis van zijn vader te ontrafelen en eindelijk de waarheid te ontdekken. In parallel - en perfect opgebouwd in deze roman - wordt het hele proces tegen Klaus Barbie verhaald, met alle getuigenissen, pleidooien en veroordelingen. 

Het verhaal is diep emotioneel, inclusief het oppakken en naar de concentratiekampen verzenden van de 44 kinderen van Izieu, een huis ergens in bergen waar joodse ouders hun kinderen hadden ondergebracht om hen voor de nazi's te beschermen, maar dan toch verraden en op bevel van Barbie op de trein gezet. De echte realiteit is de horror, inclusief de onverbloemde getuigenissen die op het proces worden gegeven. 

Tegelijk is het verhaal grotendeels autobiografisch, met de standpunten van progressief journalist Sorj diametraal tegengesteld aan het mythomane rechtse gedachtengoed van de vader. Het onbegrip, de leugens, het weglachen, het minimaliseren zijn vreselijk om als kind telkens weer mee geconfronteerd te zijn geweest. Maar gaandeweg wordt het verhaal van de vader genuanceerder, laffer, zelfzuchtiger, een psychologische roep op lijfsbehoud in een wrede en meedogenloze wereld. 

"J'étais prêt à tout lire et à tout comprendre. J' étais heureux de savoir, et terrifié par ce que j'allais apprendre. Peur d'avoir un dénonciateur pour père, un voyou grattant des lettres anonymes ou téléphonant à la Gestapo. Lorsque je t'ai lu désertant l'armée française défaite pour t'enroler dans la légion de Pétain, j'ai espéré que ton histoire s'arrêterait là. Un jeune décervelé rejoignant la loi du plus fort en se rêvant sauveur du pays. Cette guerre-là m' allait bien. Elle me permettait de comprendre tout le reste. Toi qui, ta vie entière, t'étais reproché de ne pas aller plus loin dans ton combat, d' abandonner tes camarades aux portes de la LVF (Légion des Volontaires Français, a French collaborationist military unit that fought for Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front), de suivre leurs batailles plus tard, dans les livres d'histoire, et de raconter à ton bonhomme de fils que tu y étais. Orgueil, vanité, arrogance,mensonge, folie, tout cela se tenait. Mais plus j'avançais dans ton histoire, la vraie, faite de témoignages, de déclarations, de lettres, de tampons et de signatures, plus tout cela volait en éclats. Tout ce que tu avais prétendu était faux et tout ce que tu avais raconté était vrai." (p. 208)

Literatuur kan nog hoogstaand zijn, maatschappelijk relevant en emotioneel. 

Een heel sterke aanrader.

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In a very elegant and clever way, Chalandon weaves together the trial of Gestapo leader Klaus Barbie with the life of his own father, who, as a collaborator, went along with the Nazis and Marshal Pétain’s Vichy regime. As in his other novels, his relationship with his manipulative, deceitful and callous father is the driving force behind his writing. The first-person narrator delves into the past and into court archives from the end of the Second World War to unravel his father’s history and finally uncover the truth. In parallel – and perfectly structured within this novel – the entire trial of Klaus Barbie is recounted, complete with all the testimonies, closing arguments and verdicts. 

The story is deeply emotional, including the rounding up and deportation to the concentration camps of the 44 children from Izieu, a house somewhere in the French mountains where Jewish parents had hidden their children to protect them from the Nazis, only for them to be betrayed and put on a train on Barbie’s orders. The true reality is one of horror, including the unvarnished testimonies given at the trial. 

At the same time, the story is largely autobiographical, with the views of the progressive journalist Sorj standing in stark contrast to his father’s mythomaniacal right-wing ideology. The lack of understanding, the lies, the brushing it off with a laugh, the downplaying – it must have been awful to be confronted with all this time and again as a child. But gradually, the father’s story becomes more nuanced, more cowardly, more selfish – a psychological cry for self-preservation in a cruel and ruthless world. 

Literature can still be of a high standard, socially relevant and emotionally moving. 

Highly recommended!

Sorj Chalandon - L'Enragé (Grasset, 2023) ****

 Sorj Chalandon has had a very tough youth, especially in relationship with his father, a theme that comes up in almost all his novels. "L'Enragé" (the enraged), is based on the real story of Jules Bonneau, one of the 55 adolescents who escape a prison for juvenile delinquents in 1934 on an island near the coast of Brittany in France. The boys, whose guilt is questionable and who are mostly from a poor background, orphans, or with parents unable to raise them properly, revolt against the harsh discipline and abuse they suffer at the hands of the directors, teachers and staff in their 'institute'. 

All inhabitants of the island are recruited to catch the boys and return them to their jail for the round price of 20 French francs, which is so lucrative that even tourists engage in the hunt. The story is also the inspiration for the poem "Chasse à L'Enfant" (The hunt for the child) of French poet Jacques Prévert. 

Chalandon writes in his typical style, direct, action-focused, emotional, rich. The main character tells his story and his challenges to control his emotions, and we can understand his anger, his revolt, his rebellious attitude when you have been humiliated, punished, disciplined for no reason at all. Like all other young boys, he tries to lay low, not to show is fear or uncertainty. You have to be tough to survive. 

"Jamais de ma vie je n'avais pensé au mot ami. Jamais je ne l'avais employé pour personne. Je suis né sans proches, ni parents ni amis. Ni les baisers d'une mère, ni les ordres d'un père. Pas non plus d' enfant à mes côtés, de copain à l'école, de camarade aux jeux. A peine un voleur de pelle, un compagnon de fugue, un incendiaire, quelques garçons rendus mauvais. A la colonie, je me suis isolé. Je n' ai voulu aucun autre que moi dans mes pas. Seul, Bonneau. Seule, La Teigne. Encaisser les coups, les rendre, tenir jusqu'à demain. Et surtout, ne pas se mêler de la souffrance des autres. Ne pas la provoquer, ne pas l'apaiser non plus."

 Or with deepl translation:  

“Never in my life had I thought of the word friend. I had never used it for anyone. I was born without loved ones, parents or friends. No mother's kisses, no father's orders. No child by my side, no friend at school, no playmate. Hardly a shovel thief, a runaway companion, an arsonist, a few boys made bad. At camp, I isolated myself. I wanted no one but myself in my footsteps. Alone, Bonneau. Alone, The Moth (nickname). Take the blows, give them back, hold out until tomorrow. And above all, not to interfere in the suffering of others. Don't provoke it, don't soothe it either.”

Luckily he is the only one to escape, thanks to the luck of being welcomed by a fisherman. The boy has trouble to adjust but the fisherman luckily has a very generous and lenient nature, which is an absolute eye-opener to the boy who now encounters totally different ways of human interaction. 

Like other books by Chalandon, you cannot but feel incredible sympathy for the predicament of the powerless boy in a brutal and unjust world. 

Excellent. 

Sorj Chalandon - Profession Du Père (Livre De Poche, 2015) ****

 If there's an easy novel to recommend, it is this one. Told by a body whose father claims to be a spy as a pretext to cover his abnormal way of life, the poverty and his radical opinions. The boy is asked by his father to keep his profession a secret for the outside world, but is kept informed about the challenges he faces. 

Chalandron writes about the mindset of the boy, the narrator of the story, with incredible conviction and precision, creating a kind of horrifying psychological environment that we as adult readers understand all too easily for its deception, its violence and manipulation, but for the boy in his gullible adoration for his father it is all reality. 

Things move further into madness when the father instructs the boy to become part of his plan to kill General De Gaulle because of his Algeria policy. 

Chalandon's writing is direct, with lots of dialogue between the father and the son, and simple story-telling when the boy narrates his situation. At the same time the story is compelling and captivating. It is terrifying and very sad at the same time.