What there is interesting with war novels Lartéguy is that they stick to the terrain, history, as Lartéguy itself is glued to Currentness ds colonial conflicts of the time. People of the novel are often thinly veiled transposing real characters he crossed. The story of the novel glue to the conduct of the great history. And they are mostly novels where Lartéguy sintéresse more to men and women, as the action itself (in a war novel we are still waiting a minimum of baroud ...). In this novel we discover Lartéguy the conflict in Katanga through a handful of French soldiers at odds, Belgian colonizers who feel the ground giving way beneath their feet, diplomats who discuss and argue over drinks whiskey ... Yet this reading disappointed me, even a little annoyed. Too much dialogue and not enough action but mostly I probably was not able to immerse myself in this African conflict that nearly sixty latest issues seemed to me very foreign.
