Items related to Night Departure and No Place (Case Dismissed)
Synopsis
French soldiers escape from a German prison camp during World War II and, on foot and unarmed, make a dangerous and heroic journey back to France, beset by hunger, paranoia, physical exhaustion, and hopelessness.
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Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
From Publishers Weekly
Written shortly before he died in July 1945, the last works by the prolific French author of Quicksand really had to be published together. It's not just that they make a continuous narrative, but had Night Departure been published alone, it would have been strangely un-Bovian. That said, they do go on too long, despite Volk's graceful translation. Hemmed in by indecision and stultifying deliberation, Bove's heros generally find themselves sucked backwards by their inability to move ahead. In Night Departure, Rene de Talhouet, a prisoner of the phony war, arranges to escape from Briberbach camp with 14 fellow inmates. While de Talhouet waffles a bit between a desire to insure his own safety and his responsibilities to his cohorts, he is largely decisive, killing two German guards when necessary and struggling back to Paris. In No Place, though, de Talhouet is frozen by paranoia. Sure that he will be arrested, he makes elaborate plans for escape. He scurries back and forth across Paris and its environs, unable to trust anyone, and his ill-disguised mistrust alienates potential well-wishers. "The problem with thinking too much," he says, "is that in the end you never do anything and you always look suspicious." Meditations on freedom, will and self-determination, these novels also give insight into the French attitude toward the German occupation.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
- PublisherThunder's Mouth Pr
- Publication date1995
- ISBN 10 0941423980
- ISBN 13 9780941423984
- BindingPaperback
- LanguageEnglish
- Number of pages467
- Rating
Search results for Night Departure and No Place (Case Dismissed)
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Night Departure: And, No Place (Case Dismissed)
Published by
Four Walls Eight Windows, 1995
ISBN 10: 0941423980
ISBN 13: 9780941423984
Used
Paperback
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less 0.98. Seller Inventory # G0941423980I4N00
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Night Departure and No Place (Case Dismissed)
Seller: Fables Books, Goshen, IN, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Condition: good. Some shelf, storage or usage wear present. The binding is tight and all pages are present. The pages appear aged but unmarked. Pictures available upon request. Individually inspected by Shadow. Thanks for supporting an independent bookseller!. Seller Inventory # FBV.0941423980.G
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Night Departure and No Place (Case Dismissed)
Published by
Four Walls Eight Windows, New York, 1995
ISBN 10: 0941423980
ISBN 13: 9780941423984
Used
Soft cover
First Edition
Seller: killarneybooks, Inagh, CLARE, Ireland
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Good. 1st Edition. Paperback, first printing May 1995, xi + 467 pages, NOT ex-library. Translated by Carol Volk. Moderately used in good condition. Interior is lightly age-toned, clean, with unmarked text, free of inscriptions and stamps; good secure binding. Faint marks and a remainder mark on outer page edges. Price blacked out on rear cover. -- Night Departure relates the escape of a band of French soldiers following the murder of two German guards at a prisoner-of-war camp, and their ensuing journey, on foot and unarmed, to their native land. It is a powerfully antiheroic tale in which the escaped prisoners' irrational devotion to one another is offset by acts of petty betrayal and violence. Paranoia and hopelessness propel them along their way as often as does the desire to be free. Their leader, who is also the book's narrator, finds himself despised and mistrusted. In No Place, the same selfless and comical narrator is beaten down by the bureaucratic stupor of occupied France - more than he had been by his earlier imprisonment and escape. Freedom remains elsewhere. Little by little, Bove's hero is transformed into a vaguely odious parasite, his sense of grandeur overshadowed by a simple fear of dying. Seller Inventory # 007955
Quantity: 1 available
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Night Departure and No Place (Case Dismissed)
Seller: dsmbooks, Liverpool, United Kingdom
Seller rating 3 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: Good. Good. book. Seller Inventory # D8S0-3-M-0941423980-3
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