Given how well regarded the author's Belfast novels are in NI literary circles, and how much I enjoyed them, I decided a while ago to read all of his books-I've now read ten of his published works, and can't really say that this one was anywhere near as enjoyable as some of the others.Essentially a thriller, the narrative takes place in France in the late 1980s, and follows Pierre Brossard, a former mid ranking official in the Vichy regime, as the net closes in on him after many years on the run from the authorities. For years he has been sheltered by a number of religious orders, though their charitability is waning. But who will catch him-the police or other shadier elements, intent on his assassination? And why, after all these years, do some of his pursuers want him dead so badly?This is another pretty sparse Moore novel length wise, with a lot going on thematically, and while the book is well crafted, I didn't like any of the characters-Brossard is unsurprisingly particularly horrible, and the figures he deals with, in the abbeys and via telephone conversations were similarly disagreeable. A brief encounter with Brossards estranged wife engenders a small amount of sympathy for her, but other than that, I felt nothing for the characters.As for the themes in the book, I've no doubt that the narrative was well researched, and that the attitude toward the French Jewish population in the years after the war was ambivalent in some areas of the population, but I felt that, as he did in a number of his other novels, Moore gave the institutions of the church a bit of a hammering, and while I'm not in any way religious, possibly because I've been reading a few books simultaneously that did the same thing, I felt that I'd preferred if this thread wasn't so strong. Of course, that's my fault for picking the book off my shelves...In the book's defence, the action in the narrative is pretty fast paced, and while I didn't love the story, I was engaged with it, interested to see how things eventually ended-which they did, pretty abruptly.All in all, not the most satisfying of my Moore reads-I suppose that's something I will increasingly find, having chosen the previous books based on the blurbs that most appealed to me.
Always on the look out for a superior thriller writer, this is the first novel I have read by celebrated genre practitioner Brian Moore, but it won't be the last! This pulsating narrative, about a man on the run for decades within his own country, hunted by the state yet shielded by the catholic church and senior figures within the highest reaches of politics, shines a clinical light on a simmering episode of French history, which has troubled the conscience of the country across all the decades since the end of WWII.Pierre Brossard was a Vichy functionary during the war, a man who aided and abetted the capture and transportation of Jews as part of the final solution. Hidden in various monasteries by a conservative cadre of the catholic church, he seemingly obtains a state pardon in 1971, only to have it revoked through public censure. At the end of the 1980s, new evidence emerges which suggests he not only aided and abetted, but also executed fourteen Jews at Dombey in June, 1944. The case is taken from the French police, who were Vichy supporters during the war, and given over to the gendarmerie, who were Gaulist republicans. The net around Brossard is further tightened by an attempt on his life and the disclosure of a statement by a shadowy group of Jewish atrocity avengers. Brossard, back in the spotlight and likely to cause embarrassment to his protectors, is about to discover just how far loyalty stretches.Told at an unflagging, breakneck pace, with forty chapters in just over 200 pages, Moore has his cake and eats it here, effortlessly engaging with a scorching plot whilst raising serious questions about church, state, implacable racism and the primacy of survival above all over human concerns. Taping into a similar vein of schism in the French mentality which drove the plot in 'The Day of the Jackall', Moore does a vastly superior job than Frederick Forsyth managed in that plodding precursor, being a vastly superior writer. Recommended.
What do You think about The Statement (1997)?
A quick read and interesting book in that its told from the perspective of the villain Brossard. He’s made just likeable enough you find yourself rooting for him, but Moore pulls us back from empathy by giving glimpses of his true character; such as when he kicks the blind dog in the neck and makes derogatory racial comments. The parts about the Catholic Church are interesting and surprising—how the priests take Brossard at his word. I guess the lesson here is that the priest may give us absolution, but only God can forgive us for our sins.
—Nancy
The main character in The Statement is Pierre Brossard, an aged frenchman on the run from his past as a nazi-accomplice during occupied WW2 france.For 40 years, he has been aided and sheltered by the Catholic Church in France and supported by some former friends, but the noose is tightening and his life is being threatened by Jewish assassins and he is being hunted by the authorities. It is a quick read and gives a fast-paced story that gives some insight into recent French history and hints at some murky dealings of the Church at the time but I don't know how much of it is based on fact, but that does not matter as this is not a history book. The author is very careful to make sure that you feel a mixture of revulsion for Brossard's history and his obvious lack of contrition and also some compassion for an old man on the run from people trying to kill him. The fact that you find yourself wishing that this obvious villain manages to evade his pursuers and avoid being held to account for his past actions is important and meant that for me the book was a step above your average supermarket paperback.
—Mycroft Webb
It is the thriller element that gained the four stars for this book.If considered a literary work, I would give a star (or star and half) less.As a crime thriller, this kept me on the chase of the pages from the first page itself. This story is about a manhunt - a fugitive who is on the run and who is chased by more than one group. There is action everywhere (shootings, killings, search warrants, political conspiracies, nail biting escapades, etc.).This is loosely based on the real life story of a certain Paul Touvier (a French war criminal, the first one to be prosecuted for the crimes against humanity - involved in the organized killing of Jews during the World War II). This case was very popular in the media. And so, Brain Moore had taken it as a cue and had spun a fast paced thriller tale out of it.Brian Moore might have been stimulated to write this story for it involved the Catholic Church. Catholic Church seemed to have given asylum to the war criminal for more than 40 years when he was in the hiding. B. Moore who struggled with his faith (he was a lapsed Catholic) reflected the struggles in the characters of the novels that he wrote. Here, B. Moore speaks of Sacrament of Reconciliation and the elements (contrition, penance, repentance) involved with it. He critically looks at it. He writes: "Ego te absolvo: those words, the most joyous in religion. He remembered, long ago, when he was a boy in Sanary, coming out after confession, and feeling sense of triumph. Confession was the greatest sacrament of the Church, a passport out of the flames of hell. Sometimes he thought that he might not be so religious a Catholic, so devout in his duties, if he did not have the relief of knowing that his sins would be forgiven."The entire novel is filled with criticisms of the Catholic Church. He writes about the Pope of then (the thought of the fanatic in the novel): "This Pope's a Polack, going around the world like a salesman, celebrating mass with bare-arsed savages and making cardinals out of niggers."Whatever it is, it is very clear that B. Moore could not get himself rid of Catholicism. It is that struggle that interests me in his novels. I will read his other books as well.
—Dhanaraj Rajan
