Banco: The Further Adventures Of Papillon (1985) - Plot & Excerpts
2015 Reading Challenge21# A book set in a different country - Banco, Henri CharrièreBanco é a continuação da história autobiográfica de Charrière após quatorze anos de luta pela liberdade. O relato começa imediatamente onde ficámos em Papillon, ou seja, após Henri ter conquistado a sua liberdade na Venezuela. No entanto, cumprir a sua promessa de levar uma vida honesta e, ao mesmo tempo, juntar dinheiro suficiente para se vingar daqueles que, em Paris, o injustamente condenaram à prisão para o resto da vida, são dois objetivos que dificilmente se conjugam. Em Banco, temos um relato das várias aventuras de Papillon, desde perigosos embustes no jogo de dados a assaltos falhados. A sorte parece não estar do seu lado e conseguir dinheiro suficiente para voltar a França resulta ser uma tarefa impossível depois de todas a partidas que o destino lhe prega. Henri não estava fadado a conseguir a sua vingança, mas a sua vida foi rica e cheia de aventuras que deram gosto ler. Apesar de Banco não me ter apelado tanto como Papillon, não pude não ler esta continuação. Depois de Papillon, o leitor fica com aquela curiosidade de saber o que aconteceu a seguir, aquele desejo de alcançar um conclusão definitiva, e Banco dá-nos isso quando, quase quarenta anos depois, Henri regressa a Paris e percebe finalmente que a sua melhor vingança foi ter contrariado os desejos daqueles que o prenderam, foi ter escapado e vivido uma vida mais completa e feliz do que qualquer um deles.
"BANCO" takes up from where "PAPILLON" left off. The author has escaped into Venezuela. He is deeply embittered and finds it difficult at first to readjust to life on the outside. He is set on revenge for he feels that he was framed for a crime he did not commit. As a way of working out his anger, the author becomes involved in an elaborate plan to stage a big robbery so that he can not only enrich himself, but also return to Europe and exact his revenge. While set on his plans for revenge, however, the author finds love and peace of mind. "BANCO" stands as a fine example of what a person is capable of achieving in terms of self-improvement and spiritual renewal. When I finished reading this book, I felt very happy for the author, who had learned to cast aside the anger and rage he had bottled up inside himself during his imprisonment on Devil's Island, and find an inner peace for himself.
What do You think about Banco: The Further Adventures Of Papillon (1985)?
The plane was flying at a great height in a brilliant sky, way above a carpet of snow-white clouds. It was purity up here, and I thought of my childhood bathed in light. Beneath that white cumulus there were dirty clouds, a grayish, unclean rain—a fine image of the earthly world: that desire for power, that desire to prove to others that you are better than them, that dry, heartless desire you see in the kind of people who do not give a damn if they destroy a human being as long as by doing so they gain something or prove something.
—Kirk
The world could probably have done without this bleak sequel to Papillon. Charrière tells further "true-life" stories about his life and times in Venezuela following the remarkable escape story that is book one. Contrary to settling down quietly, he involves himself in shady businesses, probably closely related to the ones that got him a harsh conviction in the first place and at the same time he thirst for revenge upon those who wronged him. Missing the suspense and thrillsof the original book, this feels to me like an attempt to milk the story a bit more.
—Thomas Strömquist
The second volume keeps up the trend of the first one: from artistic point of view, it is quite bad, but taking into account the message the book wants to transmit, it is at least acceptable.After reading opinions on the authenticity of the book as a memoir, I am almost certain that only a little part of the adventures told in it were experienced directly by Charriere. He was probably influenced by many stories the other inmates told and maybe some of them were happening during his time in Guyana, but it is hard to believe a single man went through all of this. Nevertheless, since he did not plagiarized any of the existing novels, I believe he did no harm in borrowing them and presenting as his own adventures.If I would have been in his place, I would probably write the book differently. I would be still collecting these separate events and present them as the adventures of a single character, but a character that I have met in the prison.
—Bogdan
