Tomb for 113 soldiers

The publication of the French translation of Company Kaux Gallmeister editions probably comes not by accident in 2014, he fact that comes of a "novel of the First World War." But remembrance or not, she made event. The book wanted to show for all soldiers of all wars, so there are no bad time to read it.

Of war, William March (1893-1954), born in Alabama, had a more direct experience: that of a fighter on French soil in the 5th Regiment of the army of the United States Marines, who received two of the US high military honors, and the French Croix de Guerre. So of course, all that survived mobilized nécrivent not work as Company K and Company K is not an autobiography, but it's definitely a work based on the memory (even sil must remember about the mind that it can be misleading and in its way, fictional).

Company K is first published in extracts between 1930 and 1932 in a journal and volume in January 1933. William March also leaves other books, including his latest novel is The Bad seed (1954).

The bias Book radical is dévoquer war by successively adopting the point of view of 113 Marines, members of the company K. Each SexEducator in the first person, no nest or described presented to the reader, making 113 short chapters . Some interventions are directly connected as two photographs taken dune same scene moments dintervalle (with a different main character): the example most striking of such links is that of the various accounts of the execution summary quon German prisoners in the middle of the book and whose it is already talk when the soldier Joseph Delaney, the first to speak, discusses the contents of the book with his wife (Delaney is in the book, the author of a book that can only be Company K). Quest Which is more immoral: to kill defenseless men deliberately or kill randomly dropping bombs? Y-he was the best in the worst?

Apart from these links between episodes, often tenuous (Figure Captain Matlock, a calamity among others), nothing is done to mitigate the radical initial choice. This is therefore a work of fiction with a particularly original formal bias, which not incurring rounding errors "distance" with the events but puts to break the routine of literary narrative to place us closer to the experience of each. The feeling arises in the reader ending up close, sometimes lun, sometimes the other.

William March starts in this book where end the talk about the War of 1914, he gives voice to what escapes the general, statistics. To all those who think they know what the great war and what was the reason, he opposes a naked violence, an array of bad luck and chance, bruised bodies and lost souls. Black and bitter, the book does not give sinterdit in place in the burlesque and the gaiety of squadron, particularly with scenes related to the brothel, although moon they also refers to the hardness of a world where social hierarchies money and never lose their rights.

The book is not naturalistic, first because lomniprésence the first person is away from any clinical or objective look. Then there because he has elements that break with realism: as when the soldier Edward Romano takes aim at a man who comes to Him and that turns out to be Christ (it is left to the reader to discover the dialogue sensuit) or lorsquun soldier tells the time of his death.

I will take four examples to give an idea of ​​the tone of the book (among other well).

Lieutenant Bartlestone, which will stick out through photography Lilian Gish, that it will retain piously.

The soldier Henry Demarest, dune amputated leg, crying with joy in his dhôpital bed because the sheets are clean and that the war is over for him then that he thought that he was going to stay there.

The soldier Martin Dailey: the scene takes place in a train, and while that a man dying beside him, he sees a beautiful landscape scroll.

The soldier Leslie Yawfitz: his speech is part of "post-World War stories" at the end of the book, after the Germans bent. He learned that the French and the Germans speak of reconciliation and he frankly impression quon sest damn him. This is the strength of the book is the indignation we served as is, without a word of comment would give right or wrong to a man who wonders what his sufferings in the trenches may well have to rhyme.

University of Alabama editing PressCompany K, which dates from 1989, is a small, robust and convenient volume (a soldier could slip it into his bag) and includes an introduction that places the book in American literary history, showing how it anticipates on literary devices quon find lévocation operated during the Vietnam war.

French editing in Gallmeister in an elegant presentation, offers a translation Stephanie Levet who honestly seeks to loriginal and flavor can often be achieved, wherever possible.

A masterpiece? Yes I Do. But the only species that is worth: that books that are changing our idea of ​​a masterpiece.