The Blood of Others - post IV

Because it is the weekend and a lot has been going on today with school fairs and working in the house all I am aiming to do is read the remaining 40 pages of The Blood of Others in two readings.

By now the uncertainty of the start has long been forgotten and the way de Beauvoir weaves the past and the present has actually become familiar and you start to appreciate the way she is building the story to its climax. The other point that has to be made for her is a wonderful ability to put herself into the heads of both strong male and female characters and the way she describes Jean’s thinking is incredibly perceptive.

Bullet points between pages 200 – 220

* Helene splits from Denise and her family and heads back into Paris after hitching a lift with the Germans who are taking supplies and villagers back into the capital, which is deserted and feels like a Sunday afternoon, but a particularly strange one

* Then there is a skip ion time and Helene is working for a German and even considering going to Berlin but at the moment when she has to commit she backs out because she is ashamed to be collaborating

* Then the story moves to Jean who meets his old friend Marcel who has escaped from the prisoner of war camp and is bemused to find his friend running a resistance movement that involves ‘terrorism’ as he describes it but at the same time he thoroughly approves

Last pages tomorrow…