Le Petit Garcon (English, French and French Edition) - Hardcover

Labro, Philippe

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374184488 ISBN 13: 9780374184483

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1992

Synopsis

The youngest of seven children living in a small town in southwestern France during World War II, a little boy quickly learns the importance of compassion in an increasingly intolerant world.

About this title

About the Author

Philippe Labro is currently the director of programming for Radio-Tele Luxembourg.

Reviews

In One Summer Out West , Labro's hero came of age in a Colorado work camp, circa 1955. In The Foreign Student , the protagonist underwent the rite in an all-male Virginia college of the same era. The little boy of Labro's latest title faces growing up during WW II in an unnamed town in southern France, presumably the author's native Montauban. The book begins promisingly with a section titled "Innocence," where, in evocative, beautifully translated prose, Labro recounts the oddities of visitors, family members and physical surroundings. Each brief narrative bifurcates, meanders and folds back on itself, effectively recreating the diffuse thinking of children. Unfortunately, the meat of the book is spoiled. The title of the second and main section, "The Visitors," refers both to German invaders and to the wretched refugees tumbling before them, some into the safe haven of the narrator's town, where nearly all the residents turn out to help--a situation which elicits the reader's skepticism cannot help but perhaps this sentence is awkward, but skepticism is the important word// see possible revision sss doubt. Innocent as he is, the child is also oddly mature, and recognizes his father's moral greatness in aiding the refugees. This would be fine if he came to understand the tragedy of the Occupation as well; lacking that deeper implication, the tale loses its resonance.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A coming-of-age tale (nominated for the prestigious Prix Goncourt) that's set before and during the German occupation of France in WW II. This time out, Labro (One Summer Out West, 1991, etc.) invests an idyllic setting with the tensions of the Resistance and manages to pull off that most difficult of things- -making a boy's father heroic not only in the eyes of the child but also in the eyes of the adult narrator and the reader. The narrator, youngest of seven children, first describes daily life before the war. A family album, or ``The Album,'' ``reinforces the tribal feeling that unites us,'' while the family house is known to all and sundry as ``The Villa.'' The father is a benevolent type, and, as the Nazis occupy the provinces, a succession of ``old friends'' and ``temporary gardeners'' come to stay--they are Jews, of course, and father is aiding and abetting them. The narrator moves from colorful accounts of local neighbors to more sober reflections on the relationship between his literary conception of the ``hero'' and its real-life equivalent, mostly in the person of his father. The children become part of the conspiracy and learn to ``play a role''; there are reprisals, collaborations, and deportations; German soldiers occupy ``The Villa''; and a succession of scary moments are vividly drawn. After the Allied landing and German retreat, Sam, a teacher, arrives and convinces the father that his children must be taken to Paris so that they can receive first-rate educations. Reluctantly, he moves his family, and, at the finish, there's a portrait of city life as the narrator loses his provinciality and, in an epilogue, meets someone his father (now dead) saved during the war. Labro invests a familiar story of heroism with affection and even a sheen of nostalgia: a well-crafted novel that reads like a memoir. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This beautifully written work is about a little boy who, together with his six siblings, comes of age in a small southwestern French town occupied by Germans during World War II. The boy, who offers us his perspective on a world of innocence and discovery, is sheltered by his loving mother and a protective father anxious to teach his children the importance of thought in action, the difference between right and wrong, the value of experience when making judgments, and the need for human compassion in an intolerant world. Coverdale's translation is superb, mirroring all the nuances and subtleties of the original. Labro is a novelist, journalist, and director of numerous film documentaries and feature films. Named Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Merite and Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, he has won literary awards such as the Prix Interallie and the Prix Gutenberg des Lecteurs. This is his fourth novel, and the second to be nominated for the Prix Goncourt. A rare pleasure to read.
- Danielle Mihram, Univ. of Southern California Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0374184488
• ISBN 13: 9780374184483
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 259