Eat Him If You Like by Jean Teule: book review

Eat Him If You Like (2009) is set in rural France in the Dordogne region on 16 August 1870. It is based on a real event in history during the Franco-Prussian war.

Nobleman Alain de Moneys is almost 30 years old, but still living with his parents on their estate. On this hot August day he wants to go to the fair, three days before he will fight in the war, even though the medical board exempted him from battle due to his limp leg and weak constitution.

He travels on horse for the two miles to the village Saint-Roch (population 45) near Hautefaye, where there is a bustling crowd of 600 to 700 people.

A mis-heard conversation is exaggerated, blown out of all proportion, and travelling fast. It stemmed from an argument about the war, when the phrase ‘Down with France!’ incites anger. There is a traitor, a Prussian, an enemy in their midst. A one-hundred person mob goes berserk. Friends become enemies, and strangers support strangers, in an irrational scene of mayhem in a community of farmers, traders, and noblemen.

The intensity of the anger only wanes during brief diversions – one by Father Saint-Pasteur who shouts that his home-made wine is free in order to dispel the crowd. And another by 23-year-old Anna Mondout, one of the few people in the village who wanted to learn to read.

The result is barbaric. The police arrive, but there are only 21 detention cells in Perigueux jail. But who were the main perpetrators? The verdict is announced on 13 December, three months after Napoleon III surrendered and France was declared a republic. The local government wants more than a verdict and a sentence – it wants to forget the whole incident. And it has an idea how to erase the brutality of the day from the history books forever.

The 112-page novella manages to detail the senseless savagery and its aftermath. Quite astoundingly written, and accompanied by a small simple map at the start of each chapter to show the extent of the murderous melee. Each sentence cuts deep into the psyche of herd mentality to depict the marauding mob, where a few good people are not enough to mitigate the carnage.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Comments

Pir-E-Kamil - The Perfect Mentor by Umera Ahmed: book review

The Perfect Mentor pbuh (2011) is set in Lahore and Islamabad in Pakistan. The novel commences with Imama Mubeen in medical university. She wants to be an eye specialist. Her parents have arranged for her to marry her first cousin Asjad. Salar Sikander, her neighbour, is 18 years old with an IQ of 150+ and a photographic memory. He has long hair tied in a ponytail. He imbibes alcohol, treats women disrespectfully and is generally a “weird chap” and a rude, belligerent teenager. In the past three years he has tried to commit suicide three times. He tries again. Imama and her brother, Waseem, answer the servant’s call to help Salar. They stop the bleeding from his wrist and save his life. Imama and Asjad have been engaged for three years, because she wants to finish her studies first. Imama is really delaying her marriage to Asjad because she loves Jalal Ansar. She proposes to him and he says yes. But he knows his parents won’t agree, nor will Imama’s parents. ...

Flaws in the Glass, a self-portrait by Patrick White: book review

The manuscript, Flaws in the Glass (1981), is Patrick Victor Martindale White’s autobiography. White, born in 1912 in England, migrated to Sydney, Australia, when he was six months old. For three years, at the age of 20, he studied French and German literature at King’s College at the University of Cambridge in England. Throughout his life, he published 12 novels. In 1957 he won the inaugural Miles Franklin Literary Award for Voss, published in 1956. In 1961, Riders in the Chariot became a best-seller, winning the Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 1973, he was the first Australian author to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for The Eye of the Storm, despite many critics describing his works as ‘un-Australian’ and himself as ‘Australia’s most unreadable novelist.’ In 1979, The Twyborn Affair was short-listed for the Booker Prize, but he withdrew it from the competition to give younger writers the opportunity to win the award. His autobiography, Flaws in the Glass...

Sister cities discussed: Canberra and Islamabad

Two months ago, in March 2015, Australia and Pakistan agreed to explore ways to deepen ties. The relationship between Australia and Pakistan has been strong for decades, and the two countries continue to keep dialogues open. The annual bilateral discussions were held in Australia in March to continue engagements on a wide range of matters of mutual interest. The Pakistan delegation discussed points of interest will include sports, agriculture, economic growth, trade, border protection, business, and education. The possible twinning of the cities of Canberra, the capital of Australia, and Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan, were also on the agenda (i.e. called twin towns or sister cities). Sister City relationships are twinning arrangements that build friendships as well as government, business, culture, and community linkages. Canberra currently has international Sister City relationships with Beijing in China and Nara in Japan. One example of existing...

FEAST OR FAMINE

Search This Blog