And the ending is insane. It takes place at a marina by London's City Airport, which is wide open and on the seedy side. Only one way in or out. No cover. A Mexican Standoff between bad guys, cops, two innocents, and our hero, Ben Forrier. Not to mention a sneaky assassin lurking about. It's got a gunfight. Bombs. Sniper rifles. An Aston Martin convertible. And DRONES! I even threw in a kitchen sink...off the galley of a cabin cruiser moored nearby. And mixed in is Ben's explanation of what happened.
It probably makes absolutely no sense, right now, but so what? As Alfred Hitchcock once said, "It's just a movie." Right?
I'm digging back into The Blood of Others and finally got to a part that grabbed me. It's the last 60 pages of the book, and Paris has fallen to the Nazis. Blomart, the lead male -- one of those self-satisfied men who feigns dissatisfaction (my description, not de Beauvoir's) -- casually talks a couple of friends into setting up their own branch of resistance against the German occupation. One half-heartedly points out that if they do commit violent acts against the German soldiers, there will be reprisals. Innocent people will die. A reality that is so easily rationalized away, it left me shaken.
The Resistance in France during WW2 has been so romanticized beyond recognition or honesty, it's more like a fairy tale than something that really happened. And, of course, most Frenchmen will insist there were very few collaborators during that time. So to read this moment in a book written only a couple years after the war's end sent a chill of truth across the nape of my neck.
People die in war -- innocent and guilty, alike. Soldiers and civilians. Men, women, and children, not to mention other living creatures. Even now. It's like a tornado or earthquake or tsunami, completely without anything in the way of human concern with its aftereffects. It just is what it is. The only difference is, it's man-made instead of a natural occurrence.
You have to wonder why anyone -- anyone -- would want to have that happen.
It probably makes absolutely no sense, right now, but so what? As Alfred Hitchcock once said, "It's just a movie." Right?
I'm digging back into The Blood of Others and finally got to a part that grabbed me. It's the last 60 pages of the book, and Paris has fallen to the Nazis. Blomart, the lead male -- one of those self-satisfied men who feigns dissatisfaction (my description, not de Beauvoir's) -- casually talks a couple of friends into setting up their own branch of resistance against the German occupation. One half-heartedly points out that if they do commit violent acts against the German soldiers, there will be reprisals. Innocent people will die. A reality that is so easily rationalized away, it left me shaken.
The Resistance in France during WW2 has been so romanticized beyond recognition or honesty, it's more like a fairy tale than something that really happened. And, of course, most Frenchmen will insist there were very few collaborators during that time. So to read this moment in a book written only a couple years after the war's end sent a chill of truth across the nape of my neck.
People die in war -- innocent and guilty, alike. Soldiers and civilians. Men, women, and children, not to mention other living creatures. Even now. It's like a tornado or earthquake or tsunami, completely without anything in the way of human concern with its aftereffects. It just is what it is. The only difference is, it's man-made instead of a natural occurrence.
You have to wonder why anyone -- anyone -- would want to have that happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment