Oh. My. Goodness.
This book took my breathe away, broke my heart, mended it, and surprised me to no end. Absolutely brilliantly written.

I halfway through this book had lost much of the enthusiasm that I had at the beginning of the book. The premise was interesting – that five French soldiers in WWI who intentionally shot themselves in the hand so they could get discharged and avoid getting killed in the trenches in the senseless bloody trench warfare got sentences of death imposed on them and rather than execution by firing squad were sent to the front lines with their hands tied behind their back and sent into no-man’s land presumably to get butchered up by bullets from the Germans in the opposite trenches (or by their own countrymen firing at the Germans). But did things turn out that way? Did they all die?

That was what a fiancé, Mathilde, a fiancé of one of the soldiers, Manech, asked, and was not swayed by the evidence that trickled back to her over several years from various sources via letters or visits to others or employing detectives. She was not convinced of his death at least in the manner that was told to her in dribs and drabs. At first the letters and visitors with their reminisces were interesting but then there were just too many of them. It was hard to keep track of them all (letters, visitors) and to put them in some sort of accumulating body of evidence. Clues were surreptitiously thrown in throughout the chapters, but not of enough substance to make things click, and so I was at that stage that I sometimes reach with books: “Screw it. I’ve read this far, and I just want to get this over with.” But then some things were revealed near the end of the book (the chapter, The Sunflowers at the End of the World), and a number of things all of a sudden made sense. And I liked how the book ended. And so the book to me changed from a book I did not like to a book that was OK.

But that is not why I read - to have a mindset through a good deal of the book that I don’t like it and I just want it to end.

I have a suspicion I am in the minority on this one (judging from book reviews I am). I do not think the author should have disclosed something that was important about the letters rather late in the book: that soldiers when writing back to their loved ones would often write in code to avoid their letters getting edits or destroyed by censors. Perhaps then as I read many of the letters in the beginning I could at least be assuaged by the fact that later on in the book the confusing letters would all of a sudden make sense. I don’t know – I don’t even think that would help. Confusing letters are confusing letters. I at best can give this book a tepid like (2 stars).

Why I think I am in the minority is that the summary on the back cover of the book stated that this was a runaway bestseller in France and the winner of the 1991 Prix Interallie, as well as the accolades on the front pages of the book before the actual novel begins. One reviewer says “It has been a battle to avoid writing of Sebastien Japrisot’s novel about World War I as a kind of latter-day ‘War and Peace’. I lost. It is a kind of ‘War and Peace’.” (Richard Eder, LA Times Book Review).

Other reviews: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-en...
JimZ: This reviewer from The Independent (UK) when waxing poetic about this book had this to say halfway through the review which perhaps will exonerate me and my tepid rating of this book: “Every detail in the patchwork has its relevance, and the reader who fails to give the book full concentration will soon be floundering.” I guess I was one of those inept readers who failed to give this book at the outset and throughout my full and rapt attention. ☹

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/21/bo...

This book was also made into a movie (starring Audrey Tautou) that received uniformly good reviews.

Five men worn out by the carnage of the Somme take the drastic decision to shoot themselves in the hand. Each man is found guilty at court-martial and rather than lined up in front a firing squad are sentenced to be abandoned at night with their hands tied in no-mans-land between the opposing trenches. The five French soldiers are reportedly killed in battle but after the war, a dying solder raises doubts about their demise and suggests that at least one of them may have survived.

Mathilde Donnay, confined to a wheelchair after a childhood accident and the fiancée of the youngest victim, Manech, sets out to discover the truth about what happened that night. The book consequently isn't really a war story (although it is obviously written with that as it's backdrop) but rather one about the determination and resolve of a young woman to uncover the facts.

The novel was initially written in French before being translated into English contains a large cast of characters each adding a fragment to the whole rather like a jigsaw puzzle. As a reader you must either really concentrate or simply go with the flow in the hope that you get the gist of it. Yet despite the complex nature of the plot it ticks along at a decent pace.

The mud and fear that pervaded the trenches in France also pervade this novel. Readers can understand why a few soldiers thought that shooting themselves in the hand might be their ticket out of the madness. As Mathilde traces their stories and meets their families and friends, she shows us that memories that exist after such life changing events are not always totally trustworthy, the so called 'fog of war'. The depictions of the battlefield horrors are pretty graphic as are the psychological effects on the soldiers who were there and the resilience of people who must rebuild their lives in its aftermath. However, each topic is covered sympathetically and are lightened by interludes of subtle humour.

“A glass of wine taken with dinner makes doctor’s purse a little thinner.”

As stated previously there is a large cast of characters some of whom, like Tina and Celestine, are memorable but the weight of the book rests on Mathilde's shoulders and its here that I have a few minor gripes. I just couldn't make my mind up about her. At times I found her plucky and sympathetic but at others demanding and spoilt but I think that everyone can admire is her determination and will root for her as the tale nears its conclusion.

On the whole I found this a thoroughly enjoyable book from and author of whom I previously knew nothing about. Perhaps the over-riding message of this book is that hope and despair are often the flip sides of the same coin both for those who go off to fight but also those who must stay behind.

tA Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot was a book that really went into the depth of what people will do for love. The story was about a women named Mathilde who was told that her fiancé Manech, was killed during WW1 after he shot his hand in an effort to be sent back home. Mathilde, who believes the man she loves is still alive, goes on an investigation to find out exactly what took place while he was at war. I personally didn’t like the book very much because I couldn’t relate to it. Also it was very hard to follow along with. There were many characters and they all had nicknames, which made it difficult to keep track of. I would recommend this book to someone who has an interest in WW1 and is able to keep up with the pace of the book. However I did think that the book did a good job of exploring the lengths that people are willing to go through for love.

A story of WW I translated from the French. Just before the war begins, a young woman who is confined to a wheelchair meets the love of her life. Of course he goes off to war and perishes in the trenches. Little by little, over ten years, she learns odds and ends of details of what actually happened to him.

We learn right at the beginning of the novel that so many soldiers were deserting and getting self-inflicted wounds that army officers decided to make an example of five such men. Instead of shooting them by firing squad, they forced them out unarmed and bound between the French and German trenches at night in a bitter snowstorm. Her lover was one of these men. He died in a hail of bullets and a barrage of grenades or from the bitter cold. Or did he?

She becomes an armchair (or wheelchair) detective with her long-time caretaker driving her to interview people. She places announcements in newspapers to get more information and hires a detective and the family lawyer to help out. Fortunately she is from a wealthy family. From little bits and pieces a fascinating tale emerges with a surprise ending.

A very engaging book that won a French Literary award when published in 1991. (The Prix Interallie for the best work by a journalist.) I won’t quite say I couldn’t put it down – it drags in a couple of places – but almost!

While there is a cornucopia of novels out there about World War II, stories about The Great War are just a bit harder to find. Told in a deeply atmospheric style, as if remembering a dream, or looking at color photos faded to sepia, this tale “stuck” with me for months after putting it down.

I learned so much from this novel – things that should be taught in World History class, or perhaps were and I just forgot. Wild poppies in France. No Man’s Land. Deserters and self-induced injuries or purposeful recklessness. The called it The War to End All Wars and you certainly feel that when reading.

If you love historical fiction, a novel that transports you to another time, or learning history told through the lense of fiction, then I highly recommend “A Very Long Engagement”.

Piénsenlo: entre todos los libros jamás escritos hay al menos uno que casi nadie conoce, discreto, poco popular, con el poder de transformarlos a ustedes en una de esas personas que en adelante, como quien tiene una misión, aprovecharán cualquier oportunidad que se les presente para recomendar su lectura, incluso a desconocidos, con el entusiasmo tenaz de los lectores que han quedado deslumbrados.

Esta novela podría haberse convertido en uno de esos libros para mí... si no hubiese visto antes la película. Toda la película me gusta mucho pero hay una escena en concreto que me emociona tanto que me he pasado toda novela esperando que llegase... y no ha llegado: mi detalle favorito de la película no está en la novela, es un acierto del guionista.

A favor de la novela diré que casi todo lo bueno de la película está en la novela y que los añadidos de la película tienden a en endulzar un poco de más la historia.

La traducción al español es mala, por cierto. Merece una corrección.

Termino, por si alguien tiene curiosidad, con una pequeña lista de novelas no muy recordadas que en algún momento de mi vida me han transformado en un lector con una misión:

La cicatriz, de Bruce Lowery
Fuera de quicio, de Karen Joy Fowler
El chico del periodico, de Pete Dexter
El hermano del famoso Jack, de Barbara Trapido
Todo esto para qué, de Lionel Shriver
Don Juan en Sicilia, de Vitaliano Brancati
El cuarto mandamiento, de Booth Tarkington
La hija de un soldado nunca llora, de Kaylie Jones
Trampa para Cenicienta, de Sébastien Japrisot

Si leen alguno y no les gusta, sepan que no acepto reclamaciones.

My love,
I’m not able to write today, so a fellow Landis is writing this for me. Your face is all lit up, I can see you. I’m happy, I’m coming home. I would like to shout out my joy on the road, I’m coming home. I would like to kiss you the way you like me to, I’m coming home. I must step lively. Tomorrow is already Sunday, and we’re to be married Monday.

Fragment of a letter sent from the trenches by a teenage soldier to his girlfriend, on a cold morning in January 1917. Jean Etchevery, affectionately called Manech by his fiancée Mathilde and ‘Cornflower’ by his comrades in arms, never gets home for his wedding. The very same day he is reported as “killed in the line of duty”. For two years, Mathilde lives with her grief, until one day another soldier sends her a letter revealing the cruel, criminal actions of the authorities that led to her fiancée’s death. Despite being confined to a wheelchair by a childhood accident that cost her the use of her legs, Mathilde is resolved to find out the truth about that fateful day, hoping against all odds that Manech had somehow survived.

Esperanza sighs, “My dear girl”, and says that she has better ways to spend her youth – especially given her lot in life – than to go chasing the wind. Her desire to marry a fiancee lost in the war is a noble sentiment, but she should put all bitterness aside. Bingo Crepuscule was a trench among thousands, the sixth of January in 1917 was one day in the horror of fifteen thousand others, and Manech one unfortunate soul among millions of unhappy soldiers.

A moving love story, a terrible account of the horrors of the Great War, a criminal investigation full of surprises, a panoramic view of France before, during and in the aftermath of the war – this novel has it all and Japrisot weaves the different threads with a mastery that made one reviewer compare it to the famous epic of Tolstoy – “War and Peace”. After turning the last page, such hyperbole doesn’t look as forced as I initially thought.

I don’t remember many private investigators that are confined to a wheelchair. Mathilde has other qualities that compensate for her lack of mobility: perseverance, patience, attention to detail and tidiness in organizing the accumulation of clues. She may be motivated by love, but she goes about her quest in a very professional way. She’s not a lone wolf in the style of American hard-boiled, she uses all her friends and family and even hires people to help her in her search. Most of all, Mathilde writes letters and visits the relatives of the other four men who shared the fate of Manech on that desperate January morning, sent out into the no-man’s land between German and French trenches by their own comrades.

It’s not easy to write an epistolary novel using multiple voices. It takes real talent to get the different backgrounds and the different temperaments right. Japrisot managed to switch styles for each new character relating his or her recollection of the events to Mathilde. With his experience writing crime fiction it is not a surprise that he builds the case carefully and keeps the reader guessing at the outcome until almost to the last page of the book.  my favourite part is the story of Tina Lombardi who re-enacts the Edmond Dantes story, taking revenge on the officers and politicians who sent her lover to die like an animal between trenches . What surprised me in a good way was how well he tackled the romantic part of the story and how powerful is the evocation of the life in the trenches and of the lasting psychological scars left in the minds of the survivors.

The term PTSD was unknown in 1917, but the following quote may explain the revolt of any reasonable person at the cruelty of punishing the young Manech whose mind collapses under prolonged exposure to stress:

He was afraid of the war and of death, like almost everyone, but he was also afraid of the wind, that harbinger of gas attacks, afraid of a flare tearing through the night, afraid of himself, for he never knew what he might do when he was afraid, afraid of his own side’s artillery, afraid of his own gun, afraid of the whine of aerial torpedoes, afraid of mines that explode and engulf a whole section of infantry, afraid of the flooding that drowns you in the dugout, afraid of the earth that buries you alive, afraid of the stray blackbird that casts a sudden shadow before your eyes, afraid of the nightmares in which you always wind up gutted at the bottom of a shell hole, afraid of the sergeant who dreams of blowing your brains out because he’s fed up with carping at you, afraid of the rats that come for a little foretaste, sniffing you as you sleep, afraid of the lice and the crotch-crabs and the memories that suck your blood, afraid of everything.

To find out if Manech or any of the other four doomed soldiers survived, you will need to read the novel, and not solely my review. I don’t have any reservation about recommending the novel, and I plan to both read more books by Sebastien Japrisot, and to watch the movie adaptation with Audrey Tatou and Marion Cotillard, two of the best new actresses in France.

As an epitaph, I have chosen the words of one of the survivors, succinctly capturing the essence of the story:

I’ll keep waiting, for as long as it takes, for this war to be seen in everyone’s eyes for what it always was, the most filthy, savage, useless obscenity that ever there was.

O carte bunicica, ce m-a captivat rapid și la final mi-a lăsat o stare de bine.
Chiar dacă nu este o poveste alerta, iar scrisorile lungi uneori m-au pierdut, mi-a plăcut sa o citesc. Singurul inconvenient mai major a fost faptul ca în aceasta carte sunt o suta de mii de nume (exagerez, dar înțelegeți voi), și pt ca la acest capitol stau foarte prost, de fiecare data trebuia sa recitesc anumite pasaje, ca să îmi dau seama cine era cine și de unde a mai apărut. Un pic cam greu de urmărit, dar asta a fost problema mea, poate voi nu veți fi deranjați de acest lucru.
Mi-a plăcut foarte mult personajul principal. Atâta determinare nu mi-a mai fost dat de mult sa descopăr intr-o femeie. Sarcastica, ironica, deșteaptă, descurcăreata... tot tacâmul. Mi-a plăcut. Nu a fost o carte pe care sa nu o pot lăsa din mana, dar mi-a făcut o reala plăcere să o citesc.
Ii dau 4 stele. Recomand.

書是在我高一那年在台出版，當時就在書店翻過；可習慣從結局看起的我，總弄不懂這書收場到底如何，就失卻了翻閱的想望……
沒想到後來我從大學總圖借到這書時正值低潮，這書讓我對生活重新燃起希望：總之，正如書中人所言：生命絕對強韌的能把我們每個人都揹在背上！（寫於2004年）
https://hou26.org/zeta/long.htm

--

十八年後電影版男主角Gaspard Ulliel離開了，我想起他是演那種既危險又脆弱的少年走紅。
再翻閱這本書，故事依然那麼溫暖，而現實似乎更為殘酷。（寫於2022年）

I LOVED this book. And I loved the main character, Mathilde, more than just about any character in any book I've ever read. She is strong, sarcastic, always gets what she wants, and has a good sense of humor. Mathilde, despite her sarcasm and pig-headedness seems to inspire devotion in everyone she meets. How could you not admire someone who accomplishes as much as she does despite being in a wheelchair? How can you not admire her devotion to Manech? She would not rest until she got to the bottom of what happened to him. And the mystery of what happened to Manech and four other soldiers who were thrown into No-Man's Land by their own leaders keeps you reading on and on. There are so many different versions of what happened that Mathilde's investigation is constantly taking one step forward and two steps back. But there's a constant feeling of momentum--you know Mathilde will get to the bottom of this. As time goes on she gets closer to solving the mystery by meeting people who are closer to what finally happened to Manech. This is such a wonderful story of love and devotion, but don't worry, it never gets sappy. Mathilde would have hated that!

Cinci bărbați epuizați după măcelul care a aut loc în timpul bătăliei de la Somme iau decizia drastică de a se împușca în mână. Fiecare bărbat este găsit vinovat de către curtea marțială și, în loc să fie aliniați în față unui pluton de execuție, sunt condamnați să fie abandonați noaptea, cu mâinile legate, între tranșee. Oficial, cei cinci soldați francezi au fost uciși în luptă. Neoficial, în haosul războiului nu sunt detalii despre soldați.

Mathilde Donnay este țintuită într-un scaun cu rotile după un accident din copilărie și, în același timp, logodită cu unul dintre cei cinci soldați care au fost uciși după condamnare. Este convinsă că Manech, iubitul ei, est încă în viață și își propune să descopere adevărul despre ceea ce s-a întâmplat în acea noapte. În consecință, cartea nu este cu adevărat o poveste de război, ci mai degrabă una despre determinarea și hotărârea a unei tinere femei de a-și regăsi iubitul.

Romanul a fost scris inițial în franceză, înainte de a fi tradus în engleză, conține o distribuție mare de personaje, fiecare personaj completând povestea, ca un puzzle. Ca cititor, trebuie să fii concentrat ca să poți înțelege povestea și să reții toate personajele. Cu toate acestea, în ciuda naturii complexe a intrigii, acesta merge într-un ritm decent.

Noroiul și frica care au pătruns în tranșeele din Franța pătrund și în acest roman. Cititorii pot înțelege de ce câțiva soldați au crezut că împușcarea în mână ar putea fi biletul lor de a ieși din nebunie. În timp ce Mathilde le urmărește poveștile și le întâlnește familiile și prietenii, ea ne arată că amintirile care există după astfel de evenimente care schimbă viața nu sunt întotdeauna demne de încredere.

Amintirile soldaților care au asistat la ororile de pe câmpul de luptă sunt destul de grafice, la fel ca și efectele psihologice. Este de apreciat rezistența oamenilor care trebuie să lupte ca să-și reconstruiască viața după ce au fost martorii unor evenimente care le-au schimbat viața iremediabil.

După cum sa spus anterior, există o distribuție mare de personaje, dintre care unele, precum Tina și Celestine, sunt memorabile, dar greutatea cărții este pe umerii Mathildei și aici am câteva nemulțumiri minore. Pur și simplu nu m-am putut decide dacă să o admir sau o critic. Uneori am găsit-o curajoasă și simpatică, alteori exigentă și răsfățată, dar cred că oricine poate admira determinarea ei, ținând cont de handicapul pe care-l avea. Cartea este bine scrisă, relaxantă, scrisă de un autor despre care nu știam nimic anterior.