Simon et l'enfant

Inhoud

Vous avez peut-être lu Un sac de billes. Joseph Joffo y raconte sa propre enfance: comment il a vécu la Seconde Guerre mondiale, lui, petit garçon juif de 11 ans. Dans Simon et l'enfant, le personnage est un garçon du même âge à peu près: Franck Germain. Il vit à Paris en 1942. La guerre bat son plein. Franck n'a jamais connu son père. Sa mère, Mireille, vit avec un certain Simon Falkenstein. Le petit Franck hait cet homme qui lui vole l'amour de sa mère. En outre, Simon est juif et les Allemands recherchent les juifs... Simon et Franck réussiront-ils à s'accepter l'un l'autre, à se comprendre et à vivre ensemble? Vous le lirez dans Simon et l'enfant.

Bespreking

A touching story of growing up in times of war

Franck Germain, an 11 year old boy, lives in Paris. It is 1942 and the war is strangling the city. Franck never knew his father. His mother, Mireille, lives together with a certain Simon Falkenstein. The little Franck really hates this guy because he steals all the love from his mother. But what is even worse is that he's Jewish and the Germans are looking for him. Their relationship gets a completely new dimension when the war starts to mess with their worriless lives.

Joseph Joffo became famous with his book Un sac de billes(A bag of marbles), in which he recounts the story of his youth: how he grew up as a Jewish boy during the big war in France. In Simon et l'enfant (Simon and the Boy) the author returns to the same setting, but applies a fictitious story-line.

The story opens with an almost standard conflict between a boy and some sort of stepfather, but quickly turns out to work itself up to a higher level. Depictions of bitterness and misery are fluently interwoven with funny episodes that show that despite all people still value the small joys of life. The eternal opposition between good and evil is constantly present and Joseph Joffo is a master in bringing these all together in a book that reads like an adventure story, but still gives you enough subjects to think about.