I see a few days ago that today it opens the movie version de See you up there, the novel of Pierre Lemaitre, winner of Goncourt 2013. And I'm very happy because I loved it when I read it back in the day. So to end June, I get my personal review so that anyone who still does not know this title of this great French writer will discover and enjoy it. Because yes, there is an afterlife Camille Verhoeven.
Pierre Lemaitre
Born in Paris in 1951, Pierre Lemaitre is one of the most prestigious and renowned French writers of the last few years. Worldwide known and achieving the greatest success with that policeman as small as he is great in intelligence and with tremendous stories that he is. Camille Verhoeven (Irene, Alex, Rosy & John y Camille), is the author of other titles such as the creepy Wedding dress, Three days and a life o Inhuman resources.
See you up there
In 1914, shortly before he was shot for treason, although he was rehabilitated later, the French soldier Jean Blanchard wrote: «I give you an appointment in heaven, where I hope that God gathers us. See you up there, my dear wife… ». And the author of this novel, Pierre Lemaitre, thanks him at the end for having borrowed the phrase for the title, just as he dedicates the book to the soldiers of all nationalities who fell in the First World War. What counts in it is also a tribute, personified in three other protagonist soldiers, three characters each more memorable and with different fortunes.
You are left with the desire that it had continued, not only for continuing to accompany the protagonists (especially the touching Albert Maillard), but for not ceasing to enjoy and admire the fluid style, full of wit and very good dialogues, and almost surreal moments narrated with humor and a extraordinary irony. In fact, on many occasions you cannot avoid a knowing, funny or excited smile in the middle of the full-blown drama that it is.
The worst possible scenario after that devastating Great War, whose victims - apart from civilians - were also many of the soldiers who survived, as those killed in combat became heroes. The main characters are three of those surviving soldiers.
Characters
Henri D'Aulnay-Pradelle
Lieutenant D'Aulnay-Pradelle It is an element of care that the author already clearly presents you as petty, treacherous, tricky and ambitious without measure or scruples. He is a scoundrel who has no choice but to like you because you know it will end badly, that riffraff like that cannot go unpunished even from the hand of the most unpredictable of writers. To begin with, four days before the armistice in 1918, and to win that missing medal, he ordered an unnecessary and senseless maneuver for his men to take the level of a field.
For this he does not hesitate to kill two from behind and continue with two others taking advantage of the fall of a shell. One is pushed into a hole and buried alive when it explodes. Another soldier, very badly wounded in the leg and tremendously disfigured by the shrapnel that ripped off his lower jaw, manages to rescue him and save his life. From there, the relationship between them will be that of a unique and immense friendship.
Albert maillard
Albert, the rescued, will dedicate himself completely to his rescuer, Edouard Pericourt, with tireless self-denial, sacrifice and infinite gratitude for the debt of life that you owe to him. That friendship will help them deal with the trauma of seeing what they have become after literally losing their skin in war. And what has society turned them into, in which there is still the same misery, hypocrisy, class contrasts, envies, ambitions and immoralities, although the spirit of improvement, courage and hope, faith, confidence and delusions.
Best of all, they are completely different. Albert is of humble origin, timid, Fainthearted, nervous and full of insecurities, but he exudes kindness and compassion without limits and will do whatever and how it is for his friend Edouard, although when they were in the front they hardly knew each other. This description is always accompanied by the funny comments of a mother we never see, but from whom we read her thoughts about the weak character of her son who, however, is possibly the bravest of all the characters.
Edouard pericourt
Edouard is from a wealthy family, the son of a successful banker with powerful relationships in the government and with whom he was always at enmity due to his misunderstanding and contempt for his rebellious, crazy, dreamy and eccentric personality. However, he also has a sister who adores him. He is an artist with a special gift for drawing, but with a soul deeply wounded by how sensitive he is and, in the end, very upset by pain and addictions to fight it.
What unites them
The point is that Edouard does not want to know anything about his family and even less to go back to them., more for his father than for the terrible wound that has left him without a face and that he does not want to fix himself. Albert will never understand it, but he will accept it and take care of him, first in the field hospital and then facilitating his transfer to Paris under the identity of a soldier killed in the first of the deceptions and crimes that they will commit.
Albert's life, since then, will be a continuous sway of emotions and nerves that they will almost end him when Edouard, who is addicted first to morphine and later to heroin and never leaves the miserable apartment they share, idee a scam as simple as it is colossal. All taking advantage of the wave of enthusiasm, patriotism exacerbated by the victory and a sick obsession (and also guilty) of the authorities to honor their war heroes by proposing competitions of monuments in their memory. One of those who will fall for the fraud will be his own father.
At the same time, Lieutenant Pradelle, who was also of wealthy origin but had come down, has gotten what he wanted: prestige and wealth augmented by his marriage to Madeleine Pericourt, Edouard's sister, thanks to the circumstance of believing him dead but wanting to find him and bury him in the pantheon of his family. Madeleine will also meet Albert, who will be in the greatest trouble because it was he who, at Edouard's request, informed them of his supposed death.
Pradelle is in charge of a company that manages the search, unearthing and transfer of soldiers fallen on the different fronts to cemeteries and new necropolises built for this purpose. But, as the perfect scoundrel that he is, his methods are the most abject and immoral imaginable, leading to an even more painful tragedy: that of the loss of bodies or their mutilation to put them in smaller coffins to save costs, confusion in identities or simply moving coffins empty or filled with dirt.
It will use incompetent partners, cheap and illiterate labor and the collusion of the authorities thanks the good relations of his father-in-law. This one, however, got it right the first time and knows exactly what kind of rabble he is. Pradelle will go banning with impunity until he runs into a gray official, despised by all for being honest, who smells it there and ends up issuing a devastating report that will uncover the infamous proceeding.
Modular
The diverse circumstances of all the characters are intertwined thanks to a successful structure and with an excellent rhythm in the plot, where the greatest and constant intrigue is to see if Albert and Edouard will succeed in the scam (and wish they did not discover them). Also if Edouard's family will come to know that their son is alive, especially when Albert ends up relating to them, working for his father and falling in love with one of the maids in his house, and, as I said before, if Pradelle is given a good example.
The end may be the only possible one and there is an epilogue that finishes off the fringes and leaves open paths. for other secondary characters who have appeared, such as the little daughter of the tenant widow of the apartment where Albert and Edouard live, and who develops with them a friendship as special as it is moving, in particular, with Edouard.
So ...
the feeling when you have finished is that of having read a beautiful novel, not historical, warlike or picaresque, but all at the same time and extraordinarily written. It thrills, moves, amuses and intrigues. You can not ask for more. Do not hesitate to discover it.
The film
Nominated for 13 César Awards and winner of 5, it is directed by the actor and director Albert Dupontel and the Buenos Aires star stars by Nahuel Perez Biscayart, among others. With touches of El phantom of the opera o Moulin Rouge, the film moves between puppet theater and surrealism.
To highlight the production design and the costumes, with special recognition for the artisan work of Cecile Kretschmar, that created the more than 20 masks used by the main character. I hope it is a good tribute. We'll see.