Forgetting is Not Easy

Preliminary Note

While many of the reviews of this novel reveal events that occur in chapter one and the dust jacket summarizes these events, this review will be purposely obscure details of the plot since the writing, in not only the first chapter but also the entire book, is particularly poignant and engrossing. Here, a reader will benefit from ignorance of plot details, and when reading the novel will enjoy its revelations even more. Pardon the intentional obliqueness and generic descriptions.

The Review

The style of Ward Just’s fifteenth novel reads like a contemporary spy thriller except that there aren’t many thrills. Instead, the novel allows the reader to contemplate the sober experiences of an ordinary man confronted with unanticipated dire events. Facing randomness that wreaks havoc is not easy.

Thomas Railles, an expatriate portrait painter of some renown, lives in the backwaters of southern France with his French wife Florette. He plays billiards with his reclusive neighbor, centenarian St. John Granger, who deserted the British front line at Somme in 1916. Although Thomas is an American, the villagers, accept and admire him. He quells an argument a trio of rowdy Americans has with Bardèche, the local proprietor of a café. He ignores the advice of the local doctor who advises him to quit smoking his Gitane cigarettes. Each of these minor characters imbues the novel with a European ambiance.

Late one Sunday afternoon, Florette ventures on an ill-advised hike in the Pyrenees while Thomas and two of his lifelong friends, Russ and Bernhard, chat about old times and drink a bit too much Corbières. Thomas’s childhood friends from LeBarre, Wisconsin, earn their living in the spy trade of the United States after the events of 9/11. Thomas (he dislikes the informality of Tom) has collaborated in the past with his friends, although discreetly, and he harbors conspiratorial thoughts about the causes of these unexpected events. He has abandoned the cloak and dagger business but now regrets he may have been partially responsible some years ago for an unnecessary death. The random events may not have been random at all.

The remainder of the novel explores Thomas’s reactions and his dilemma in assessing them. Should he just forget what has occurred, hence one interpretation of the title of the novel, or follow Bernhard’s suggestion and solve the problem. The novel’s alluring atmosphere, tinged with intrigue and speculation, builds and culminates in a scene classic in its simplicity but startling in its unfolding. Thomas suffers, but he is a painter, an artist, a person who understands the souls of other people and captures them on canvas. His personal attempt to understand events and interpret those events melds in remarkable ways. It is a thoroughly engaging scene with vivid images, one of the best in contemporary literature.

Each of the main characters, Thomas and his wife Florette, is drawn so precisely, that the reader easily identifies with the pain they endure. The minor characters, Russ and Bernhard are larger than stock characters. Russ suffers painfully himself while Bernhard tramples his way through life only to end up trampled himself. The convincing descriptions of village cafes and restaurants along the piers of Le Havre radiate the bouquet of cognac and the aroma of fresh oysters.

The novel isn’t perfect. At times, the plot appears to evaporate as minor one-dimensional characters pop up like Jack-in-the boxes to voice both anti-French and anti-American political policies. Most of the novel takes place in France, but some scenes are in America where Thomas world winds about the country: Wisconsin, Chicago, New York and Maine before he and the novel finally settle down.

A minor point; the author’s style of not using quotation marks for dialogue makes for jumpy reading. Nevertheless, this is an absorbing novel.