Review Summaries

• The book is valued for its detailed depiction of a fading working world and for combining crime-fiction tension with social-novel depth. Shifting points of view also strengthen the work.

Reviews

• Noioso

  Uno dei libri più noiosi mai letti

• In the footsteps of Zola?

  In the Vosges, an economically depressed part of north-east of France, the loss-making Velocia car plant is due to close, adding to the problems of union leader Martel who has been embezzling funds to pay for his mother’s care home. Desperate for money, he takes the unwise step of joining with Bruno, a coke-snorting bodybuilder on a temporary contract at Velocia, to kidnap a girl on behalf of the Benbarek brothers, a pair of ruthless gangsters. Predictably, the plan goes awry. Available in English as “Of Fangs and Talons”, in its original form the novel is a challenge for a non-French reader, by reason of the large amount of slang and colloquial speech. The initial scenes are not in chronological order, which adds to the confusion. “I owe as much to Proust as to the Sopranos”, Nicolas Mathieu has observed in an interview. By this, I assume he is referring to the lengthy passages devoted to minor events or everyday situations described in minute detail, as opposed to those of extreme, often gratuitous violence. He also seems fascinated by the psychology of bored, disaffected teenagers, whom he portrays rather well. Overall, he is clearly more interested in character, ambiance, an ironic take on the inequalities, injustices and prejudices of modern French society, than in plot. The prologue set decades earlier in the Algeria of 1961 is presumably meant to provide the usual overused hook of violence in the form of the brutal execution of those suspected of involvement in the movement for independence from France. This has little relevance to the rest of the novel, except to indicate the unflinching lengths to which some of the characters will be prepared to go. The fragmented structure of the novel results in some major incidents being implied, or never made clear. Some banal scenes make frustrating reading since they break the dramatic tension, although in the case of the most brutal events this could be a relief. The inconclusive ending may be a stroke of genius in reflecting what real life so often turns out to be, while paving the way for a sequel, or perhaps it is simply a disappointing “cop-out”. The debut novel of an author who went on to win le prix Goncourt for “Leurs enfants après eux”, “Aux animaux la guerre” has been made into a French TV series. I imagine the latter might “work better” in dramatic terms, but perhaps lose some of the irony which is the saving grace of this bleak, overlong novel.

• Un petit bijou de roman noir.

  Me jette sur l'adaptation cinématographique.

• Captivant

  Peut-être parce que ce livre se passe dans une région proche de ma région d'origine, mais j'ai retrouvé cette ambiance décapante et attachante des habitants marqués par la vie et qui transmettent cette pesanteur à chauqe génération. J'ai adoré et suis en train de lire "Et leurs enfants après eux", du même auteur, tout aussi intense !

• Un excellent livre

  Mort et violence chez les déclassés de l'Est de la France sur fond de fermeture d'usine et de prostitution organisée par la mafia russe.

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