Sins of the Past

JDC

May 28

Murder in Memoriam - Didier Daeninckx (translated by Liz Heron)
Melville House, 2012

The independent publisher Melville House reissued this book as part of its International Crime imprint in 2012, but the book was first published in France in 1984. It's based on the life of the French police official and politician Maurice Papon and ties together three different time and story lines.

*'Toulouse 2' by Isabelle Seruch Capouillez; watercolor*

The book opens in October 1961 when Algerians wanted to peacefully protest a curfew that France had only imposed on French Arabs a couple of weeks earlier. Many lived in terrible conditions in shanty-towns on the outskirts of cities. They gathered together at different points in Paris and were totally unprepared to face the force that met them. This was a combination of different squads in various locations; Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), gendarmerie, and reserve militia armed to the teeth, togged up, hyped up on a false rumors and information being fed to them, and instructions such as:

Break the movement, don't hesitate to use your weapons if the situation demands it. In a face to face encounter each man has the right to act as he thinks fit.

On the day of the protest, Roger Thiraud, teacher and historian specializing in the Middle Ages, indulges in his weekly vice of going to see a horror film at the cinema. His wife is going through a difficult pregnancy with their first child and on his way home with flowers and pastries in his arms, he can't believe his eyes by the events taking place in front of him.

Since his wife had become pregnant, he had developed a passion for the history of childhood, and his thinking on this topic would frequently be brought into his lessons.

The numbers released to the public by officials of dead, injured, and arrested from the protest are completely false and documentation is hidden away in inaccessible files or destroyed; later, those responsible are given an amnesty and cannot be prosecuted.

A couple of decades later Roger and Muriel's son Bernard, also a historian and his fiancée, Claudine Chenet are on their way to Morocco for a holiday with a stop in Toulouse in order for Bernard to carry on a research project his father started. She receives a call from him when he's at the Préfecture saying he's on to something and he's going to keep working until the archives close for the day.

Inspector Cadin has been transferred to a local station in Toulouse which he and Commissaire Matabiau run as a team. The Commissaire is away on holiday and Cadin is coping with a gravediggers strike, a rash of bogus mailings to prominent citizens telling them they have to report to the police station because of suspected terrorism activities, and now he has a murder on his hands.

At first Cadin is stuck, a motive for the murder seems nonexistent, but then thanks to a witness, and a police contact in Paris who gets him access to files that only a limited number of people have permission to see. He realizes his current case is firmly tied to two different, but linked, episodes in the past.

The book is primarily composed of plot and dialog with a brief excursion into Cadin's private life. Unfortunately the book is married by that last bit. It reads like a male writer's sexual fantasy, Cadin comes across as creepy and his interactions with women as cartoonish. In reality, women would stay as far away as possible from the guy. The author would have been better off sticking to plot and dialog.

However, what is fascinating about the book is the documentary-like portrayal of what happened in October 1961, the subsequent cover-up, and its links to events further back in French history. In the editor's note that begins this edition it mentions that publication of the book was believed to be a contributing factor to finally bringing Maurice Papon to justice.

In a bit of bookish serendipity, earlier this week on Monday, the Dublin Literary Award was won by The Art of Losing by Alice Zeniter, translated by Frank Wynne. As I've no doubt mentioned countless times here and on Twitter and bored you to tears, I love the DLA's longlist since it's composed of nominations from libraries all around the world and has books on it I wouldn't normally come across. I don't really watch too closely which books end up on the shortlist or wins, but this year the winning book has immediately been added to Mount TBR.