Brodeck

Brodeck's Report by Philippe ClaudelLondon: Maclehose Press$15.95 - 277 pages"Life is so strange. Once you have plunged into it, you oftenwonder what you are doing here. Maybe that is why some,perhaps a little cleverer than others content themselves withopening the door a crack and taking a look around and whenthey see what is inside, they want nothing more than to closethe door again as fast as possible." Saddle up, kind hearts. I have a winner. Like most good things, this book came to me from a good friend who is in a position to read books that I would normally never see. Knowing something of my eccentric tastes it literature, my friend sent me an urgent dispatch, saying I should purchase it immediately. So I did and here we are. Brodeck's Report meets all the requirements of qualifying as a beautifully-crafted French novel (translated by John Cullen) that not only has the power to enthrall, but also poses some significant questions about humanity's condition: are we blessed, doomed or merely irrelevant? From the first page, Brodeck's Report reflects that "timeless" quality that we associate with fables and fairy tales. Claudel's characters move through a Brothers Grimm world in which the inhabitants of a small village are identified by their occupation: Schloss, the Innkeeper; Diodeme, the teacher; Orschwir, the butcher, Cathor, the pottery-mender. The time is uncertain, and although there are distinct references to WWII atrocities (concentration camps) and 20th century technology (Brodeck owns an ancient typewriter), the novel's small village seems timeless - a world where the necessities of existence (food, shelter, procreation) follow the ancient rituals that attend seasons. Change only comes to Claudel's village with invasions and war. Brodeck, the reluctant protagonist, has been given the dubious honor of writing a report regarding a mysterious incident that occurred at the local inn - the murder of a stranger who had recently arrived in the village. Since Brodeck owns an old typewriter (the only one in the village), he has been ordered to write an account of the crime. He is reluctant to do so. As time passes and the inquiries about his report become more impatient, the reader begins to sense that something sinister has occurred in the past.As Brodeck becomes increasingly paranoid, he begins to write about events from his own past ... events so horrifying, he has attempted to erase them. At length, we learn that Brodeck is not a native of the village. Although he has a family (his mother, wife and daughter) and has spent most of his life in this village, He is aware that his neighbors consider him - like the stranger who was recently murdered at the inn - "Anderer" meaning "he came from over there." In other words, the villagers consider both Brodeck and the murdered stranger someone "who is among us, but not of us." At length, we learn that Brodeck came to the village as a child and grew to become a valued member of his community. In fact, when he is an adult, the village elders send Brodeck to a nearby city where he will learn skills that might prove useful in the village. Except for the fact that he met his beautiful wife, Emelia, the homesick Brodeck yearned to return to the village, and at length, he does so. However, he is troubled by events that he had witnessed in the city where he had seen people attacked, called "Fremder" and driven from their homes. Eventually, he learned that "Fremder," like the word "Anderer" was an offensive word used to describe "unwanted foreigners." For several years, Brodeck is blissfully happy in his village. Then, war erupts in the city and eventually an army appears. An officer orders the mayor to "cleanse" his village or suffer the consequences. Bewildered and desperate, the major consults the town elders and together they create a list of "Fremders" - eccentrics, misfits, people who are not "native to the region. Brodeck is one of them. Brodeck's three years in the prison are filled with unspeakable horror. Although he survives, he is reduced to a bestial state and witnesses crimes that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Indeed, he is a participant in shameful acts. He remembers that his guards force him to walk naked on all four like an animal and taught him to repeat the mantra, "I am nothing." When the war is over, Brodeck returns to the village to discover that his wife is now a mute due to a brutal gang-rape, and that she now has a daughter, Poupchette - a child that Brodeck readily accepts as his own.Slowly, he rebuilds his life despite that fact that he knows that his neighbors have previously cast him out as a scapegoat. So we come to Brodeck's task - a report that gives an objective account of how (and why) the stranger at the inn was murdered. Brodeck "sees" the crime, but did not participate in it. He describes how the "Anderer" arrived in the village with a pampered horse and donkey, acquired lodging at the inn where he ate and drank to excess. Initially, he is accepted and a number of the villagers attempt to befriend him. The Anderer listens, but says little, and as the weeks turns into months, the villagers realize that he makes careful notes of all he sees and hears. At length, when the visitor shows no inclination to continue his journey to other towns and cities, the village begins to resent his presence. On the night of his death, the Anderer treats the village to a kind of party complete with lavish food and wine. He even distributes a kind of personal"gift" to his guests .... a drawing that manages to capture the essence of each individual. Far from being pleased, the villagers destroy their paintings and their mood turns dangerous. Who is he? Why is he here? Is he judging the people of the town? Is he condemning them? When the villagers draw their knives and surround the Anderer, Brodeck withdraws, becoming a witness. Brodeck's Report is a dark parable. There is much here that could be termed "Kafkasque" since the novel's atmosphere is thick with a kind of sinister threat, as though something unspeakable was about to happen. In addition, much of the action reminds me of the films of Michael Haneke, the German/Austrian director, who takes great pleasure in presenting darktales of betrayal and moral decay ("The White Ribbon"). Despite the sobering message behind Brodeck's Report, I feel compelled to note that this novel is probably ... a masterpiece. Admittedly, it is bleak, but it is also redemptive, for it affirms some essential goodness in mankind ... something that rises despite overwhelming odds, and goes on. Brodeck does that. Like Aeneas flees Troy, Brodeck takes up his aging mother and his mute wife, and leading his daughter, he walks out of the village. He will start again somewhere where, doubtless, someone will call him "Fremder."

Daughter had to read this for school and told me it was one of the best books she'd ever read. So I read it too, and agree, what a story! Such a beautiful translation too. It's not happy at all but is fantastic, could not put it down.

A haunting story about a young Jew in a tiny village who survives a concentration camp. When he returns to his village, he finds everything the same yet changed forever ........ He is a survivor from the first world war and owes his entire life to the old woman who rescues him from the burnt shell of his village. His new village accepts him but at the first sign of invasion gives him up as an outsider.......like the Lepidoptera butterflies.The choices that human beings make when confronted by life or death situations and the atrocities inflicted by ordinary 'normal' people - without provocation - on friends and neighbours if they are Jews is so brilliantly and lucidly described. Not a single sight, sound, smell, feel of what the concentration camp was for the Jews, is left unsaid........a very graphic story which excels Ely Wiesel's 'Night'......

I often browse the library sale books to pick up novels of author's I have not read. It's a way of discovering new authors simply by random choice and reading the book flap. I found Philippe Claudel's "By A Slow River." After reading the book and enjoying Claudel's writing, I searched futher here for other Claudel books. After reading other reader's views regarding "Brodeck" I knew I had to purchase this book. I just finished it and liked it even more.I read a lot of mystery/crime/suspense novels and most of them would probably not fall within the "literary" category but Claudel's writing is marvelous and I surely will read other novels by him. "Brodeck" was outstanding.

It tells of moral dilemmas that visit various members of an isolated peasant community first under occupation by an enemy army and then later when a peaceful stranger arrives. Time and place are never given explicitly but it strongly hints of WWII in Central Europe. Well written and interesting to a point but I was hoping somehow for more.

There are many reviews better than what I could possibly write with my limited English skills.Read the book, it is excellent. It is hard to swallow, though, how low and cruel ordinary people under certain circumstances may become.

One of the best books I’ve read in a very long time. Filled with unexpected imagery that floods the senses, creating a nostalgia for things one has never known.

Great book, it makes you enter in a misterious and sordid world where you can observe the absurd reactions of a town towards a situation that menaced their way of thinking, without any logic base to act in such a way.It's an original and strong book.Highly recommended.

The author of " Grey Souls " and " Monsieur Linh and his Child ", both wonderful books,has written a sober,utterly original and shocking story in " Brodeck's Report ".Other reviews have described the storyline, so I would just like to say that if you want a book of beautiful language,brutal and tender,which holds a mirror up to what it means to be human and the essence of Good and Evil in us all, then don't miss out on this writer, and this book in particular.One of those that will stay on my bookshelf,to be lent sparingly to those who want more than plot lines and narrative from their reading. Philippe Claudel is a superb novelist.Buy,Buy, Buy !

I have read other books from this author so knew I wouldn't be disappointed and I wasn't. Would definitely recommend.

Apologies, but although beautifully written, I found the brutality of banishment (to a concentration camp) too much. An intended rambling story, but harsh, very harsh.

A very good book. While not stated, this is life in a small village in Alsace, eastern France, after WWII. French people realised where it was set, and I lived in that region after WWII. Some of the words, in the original french edition were very clearly from that region. The mix of realism and dream like magic realism of the descriptions ( villagers' behaviour during the occupation by a foreign army, the life in the work/concentration camp, the love and life story of the couple at the centre of the book ) made it a first class novel.

A classic - OK, it is set in the time of the German occupation of France, including deportation to concentration camps but with historical and human resonances way beyond that. Rather like Camus' The Plague, which allegorises resistance to evil, symbolised by the rats, this work has very unsettling lessons for humankind, and its inability to tolerate those perceived as different to themselves.