The strength of the book is the written descriptions of the way immigrants had to live in Paris during World War II and what it took to survive, or even eat once a day. The descriptions of the harsh life of immigrants, especially Jewish immigrants, during that time are heartbreaking and show how easily a boy could turn assassin.
I am happy that the author brought the attention to the women journalists of World War II, an important subject indeed. I’m going to pick up a few biographies to learn more about them.
In 1830 Alexandre Dumas worked as a scribe for duc d’Orléans who later became King Louis Philippe.
I laughed here and there, but I found the book to be more thought provoking than funny. I’m glad the philosophical discussions in the book weren’t much longer, even though they were fascinating.
It is clear that the author developed a great admiration towards General Dumas, a bastard son of a nobleman, born to a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue and rising to be a hero of the French Republic, albeit forgotten.
Narrowly escaping death by firing squad Jean Arnaud, a 20 year old man and his friend Palfy, a conman, are biding their time in a brothel after the French defeat in 1940. Jean falls in love with a beautiful stranger and gets into serious troubles following his heart.
The narrative is easy to read and the author takes the reader on a worldwide tour with excellent descriptions of the Middle East. The characters are well written with realistic dynamic which works well.
A second rate architect, only accepts his benefactor’s offer to design hiding places for Jews so he can get contracts building factories for the Germans.
The book is very dense with lots of eyewitness accounts to the battles from the average soldiers as well as civilian locals.
When Madame Bovary was serialized in a newspaper, the French government sued the author and publisher on charges of immorality. The government lost.