The Foundling’s War
Michel Déon; Julian Evans
(translator)
Gallic Books, Feb 10 2015, $16.95
ISBN: 9781908313713
In the summer of 1940, the French psyche is devastated but with
the party must go on attitude in spite of the Nazi blitzkrieg leading to the abject
surrender at Vichy. At a “victory” parade
in Clermont-Ferrand honoring Sergeant Tuberge with the Croix de Guerre, an
irate Palfy the con artist shouts out that the recipient is a coward and other
epithets. Patriots are irate at the
interruption while the cops go to arrest Palfy and his companion twentyish Jean
Arnaud. They flee the scene with Palfy
musing one day having the sergeant’s guts and Jean fantasizes about having just
met one of the women of his dreams (along with Chantal
and other mademoiselles) Claude.
After hiding in a brothel, the trio flees Clermont-Ferrand for
Paris where they find the city keeping the lights on during the German
occupation. In the former capital, they
meet the gamut of black market entrepreneurs, but it is Claude who carries
danger with her that places the two buddies and her in life threatening
situations.
The sequel to The Foundling
Boy is a unique intriguing glimpse into French endurance especially embraced by
the less scrupulous during the Nazi occupation.
The likable leads make the tale as still somewhat innocent Jean and his
unflappable roguish mentor Palfy never take life serious even when trapped in a
perilous situation. Their penchant for
diving head first into the fire is over the top of the Eifel Tower, but also
enables the reader to understand survival of the fittest, which rarely is the
most moralistic or altruistic, during an oppressive reign.
Harriet Klausner
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