The Lonely Statement of Brian Moore

What is forgiveness? What could you forgive?

I have just read Brian Moore's “The Statement”. I had no intention of writing this review, but the book has not allowed me to set it aside and think of the next one on my list. I am, instead, considering the two questions at the beginning of this piece.

The novel traces the cat-and-mouse game played by Pierre Brossard, a war criminal now hunted in the south of France for his murder of fourteen Jews during the last years of World War II. In order to escape the many hunters trying to either arrest or kill him, he seeks shelter with priests and members of the Catholic Church who have protected him for almost fifty years. Eventually, the net tightens and... Well, I won't go that far. It is not really the point of my review. Instead, I would like to consider some of the problems that I have with this book and why it feels personal.

If any of you have an interest in literature post-WWII, you may consider the work of Graham Greene, a writer converted to the Catholic faith whose novels considered the great ethical questions of his age through his less-than-noble protagonists in various seedy settings (critics have called it Greeneland, but it feels much more real than that).

*

Graham Greene converted to Catholicism to marry; used his faith as a means to explore issues related to morality, choice and humanity; used sexuality as well through his texts. Sex is a form of salvation for his characters (see “Brighton Rock”; “The Power and the Glory”, “The End of the Affair”). These are many of the reasons why Greene is controversial and he deserves to be treated as a controversial writer; reasons why he did not win the Nobel Prize (an ugly story you can read about through in this link).

In Moore’s book, we are deep within the thoughts of a war criminal who believes that he can be saved (Pierre Brossard has his moments):

Catholicism (absolution) : “I’m lying, even when I’m telling the truth… Confession is my insurance. I need absolution. If God forgives me then I don’t give a damn about this world.”

Sexuality and salvation (?) : (on his first seeing his future wife, Nicole) “It was not being able to touch her that made him so hot for her, but it was also a time when he was changing, when God had come back into his life.”

And...

“[T]here was a time…when he/would lie in bed on a Sunday morning, waiting for her to come back from mass and when she would come into the bedroom in her Sunday best, her missal in hand, he would make her take off all her clothes and lie there on the bed, and he’d lie there beside her with his cock sticking up, looking at her naked body, telling himself that he could have her any way he wanted and all the time and be without sin in doing it. Never before had he fucked a girl without knowing he’d have to tell it in confession. But now that he had returned to God…it was a good thing he was no longer tempted by that sin” (a long quote but necessary: this describes his relationship with his wife just after he marries her and feels that he has been redeemed).

And we do see what that statement is all about:

STATEMENT COMMITTEE FOR JUSTICE FOR THE JEWISH VICTIMS OF DOMBEY:

This man is Pierre Brossard, former Chief of the Second Section of the Marseille region of the Milice, condemned to death in absentia by French courts, in 1944 and again in 1946, and further charged with a crime against humanity in the murder of fourteen Jews at Dombey, Alpes-Maritimes, June 15, 1944. After forty-four years of delays, legal prevarications, and the complicity of the Catholic Church in hiding Brossard from justice, the dead are now avenged. The case is closed.

It is very uncomfortable to spend this much time with such a pile of contradictions, but it does get worse. Greene has been accused of anti-Semitism (quite obvious in books like “Stamboul Train”, his first successful novel); Moore is forced to enter into the thoughts of a man who sees Jews everywhere around him when he is not being cloistered in monasteries and safe houses (the word “Yid” is thrown around so freely in the book you would think that it was the name of the various groups tightening the circle around Brossard).

And blacks, Arabs and other races do not come off much better in his thoughts:

(From his argument with Nicole): “‘You don’t go to mass now because you can’t stand seeing black people kneeling beside you in church.’”

(Brossard’s thoughts on his fate): “Will I end my days in some bug-ridden, half-black country, sitting in a stinking café surrounded by greasy métèques?” (the term métèque was revived as a xenophobic term for immigrants to France).

(And on the modern Catholic church in the late 1980s): “This Pope’s a Polack, going around the world like a salesman, celebrating mass with bare-assed savages and making cardinals out of niggers.”

Yes, it is an unpleasant experience spending over two hundred pages with such an unpleasant protagonist. And that is why you should read him. Moore continues in a tradition that I think is now quite rare: the religious thriller. Greene would have approved of the map; he would not have taken all of the detours.

And here is the spoiler alert: Brossard does meet his fate, but that should not distract you from the ride. Moore is taking on perceptions of faith and religion, history and ethics, nationalism and citizenship.“The Statement” is one of the better books I have read in the last few years, and I can just imagine Greene reading this in his own private celestial reading room.

*

Thank you for reading!

If you liked this, you can add your Insights, Comment, leave a Heart, Tip, Pledge, or Subscribe. I will appreciate any support you have shown for my work.

You can find more poems, stories, and articles by Kendall Defoe on my Vocal profile. I complain, argue, provoke and create...just like everybody else.

Give it a look...