The Statement (Hardcover)

Moore has written a great meditation on the historical processes and conditions that make war crimes or crimes against humanity so difficult to pursue. Brossard is demonstrative of the expertise with which such "criminals" are able to exploit various forces of compromise, immunity, asylum and refuge. Many questions are subtly raised by this book. The Church here affords a sort of refuge to the retributive justice that the outside world demands (concerning Brossard's obvious past crimes/sins)... but what of Brossard's inner torment? Even if the Church offers (grants) Divine pardon... does the pardon of man/society necessarily follow? Should it? (I hope not). What do we make of priestly absolution when it proves ineffective as conscience-cleanser? Is this question being answered when, with his final breath, Brossard tries to be penitent and sense God's pardon, and all he is afforded is a final look (in his mind's eye) at the people that he has killed?

It is a story told by a genius writer, Moore didn't even know how to disappoint a reader. The short quick chapters make you quickly forget whatever else you had to do today... you won't stop flipping the pages till your done. He changes the "I" of his narrator constantly, and never loses the reader for a moment. I've read almost all of his many books and consider this among his very best. This is a book that had significant meaning for the author (a sort of purging of his own shame at his father's conservative Catholoic belief and initial support of totalitarianism during WWII). Moore commented concerning "The Statement" that: "I never thought that novels changed the world. I still don't believe that. But I just thought that this was a story which really should come out." It should.

But now times have changed and many of those in the Church and in government who protected Brossard have passed on and others simply want him out of the way, lest his prosecution serve as a model for subsequent trials. Moreover, the succeeding generation of officials does not bear any sympathy towards him, so they too are on his trail. What follows is a thrilling chase, as Brossard is pursued by Church, State and the shadowy committee and by "friend" and foe alike.

Beyond the basic thriller premise, Moore also offers an examination of the often ignored war guilt of France. Initially it seems possible to feel some sympathy for Brossard and the other aging collaborators, to the extent that they were motivated by anti-Communism and anti-modernism. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that, at heart, they were driven as much by genuine hatred of Jews as by any other less repulsive motives.

Moore based Brossard on an actual person, Paul Touvier, and the story's essentials, from the assistance of the Church to the presidential pardon, are all historical, though Touvier was captured in 1989 and died in prison. These, of course, are facts that stand in stark contrast to the myth that DeGaulle consciously chose to cultivate instead, of the French people as proud heroes of the Resistance, standing firm against the Nazi oppressor. In fact, just as Jonah Goldhagen's great book Hitler's Willing Executioner's (see review) has forced us to rethink the question of how limited was German responsibility for the Holocaust, it is long past time to reconsider whether Vichy France was truly an aberration or whether it was in some sense a manifestation of French popular opinion. This is especially important in light of the concurrent rise in present day France of both the Muslim population and the extremist Le Pen Party. As France, a nation obsessed by the concepts of Frenchness and French blood, approaches the moment where the classic Gallic Catholic French will be outnumbered by immigrant Muslims, it is necessary to either anticipate the possibility that this will bring genocidal violence or else to, once again, close our eyes and feign surprise when presented with a fait accompli.

Brian Moore brilliantly combines a page turning thriller with a thought provoking look at some of these issues. The result is an outstanding novel which, like much of Moore's work, defies the limitations of genre to probe vital moral issues.

GRADE: A