To tell the truth, the period of the IVand République, marked by chronic governmental instability, is not the most exciting in the history of France. Éric Vuillard nevertheless makes it fascinating, staging in his own way one of his most dramatic episodes, the war in Indochina.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
In school education, it is a phase on which we do not really dwell: Indochina, Diên Biên Phu, next chapter. But just like the war in Algeria, the decolonization of this territory (formed of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, among others) exploited from the 19and by France remains an episode often evoked with tweezers.
Rather, it was armed with telescopes, scattered like snitches in the heart of the places of power, that Éric Vuillard launched an assault on this semi-taboo war, applying to it the historical backstage recipe that made him to know – The agendaexploring behind the scenes of the successes of the Nazi army, won him the Goncourt Prize in 2017.
In An honorable exit, he cleared the fields and mines of Asia to bring out the abuses of colonialism, before perching, like an invisible bird, on the benches of the National Assembly where any mention of negotiation with the insurgents arouses the indignation of the deputies. An honorable exit? Rather die.
The volatile spy then lands, in turn, on the shoulders of the President of the Assembly Édouard Herriot, stuffing himself between two parliamentary sessions just as French companies grew fat in Indochina, then those of the war hero De Lattre de Tassigny, bogged down in a request for military support from the United States, before landing on the kepi of General Navarre, whose stubbornness will lead to the crushing defeat of Diên Biên Phu.
It is thus that through the intimacy of these characters, “puppetized” and theatricalized for the needs of the story, that the mechanics of a martial, political and human slump are narrated, far from the impersonal and disembodied tone of the books of ‘story.
On a sensitive subject, inevitable division: hailed by part of the French press, the work suffered the wrath of the Figarowho denounced an ideological approach, Manichaeism, and the eviction of “aspects [de l’histoire] which he does not like”. Is the opus really “boring”, as the conservative newspaper calls it? Pure bad faith: the story is impeccably staged, the style always lively and captivating, and the whole thing condensed and rhythmic enough to make you forget the boring history lessons of high school.
However, Quebec (and even French) readers who know little about this less notorious slice of French history will perhaps have additional work to do, by first looking at the context of the time, otherwise they could get lost. in a jungle of names and references.
Above all, it should be kept in mind that this spyglass reveals a wide angle on the universal stutters of History: how many colossi with feet of clay, concerned about their pride, have fallen before nations they thought frail, aggravating their humiliation and blood money? How many “honorable exits” have been swept away, from Hanoi to Kabul, from Baghdad to Algiers?
An honorable exit
Eric Vuillard
South Acts
200 pages