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Summary: France, during and after WWII, examined under a microscope.
Review: Both suspenseful and revelatory, Moore's story of the search for 70-year-old Maurice Brossard, a man who believes he acted righteously when he killed fourteen Jews chosen at random in Dombey, France, during World War II, reveals as much about the character of France and Frenchmen as it does about the man who killed in her name. Maurice Brossard, as a young man, was a member of the milice, an active supporter of Marshall Petain and his Vichy government. Believing that the Resistance was anti-France, consisting primarily of Communists intent upon destroying the country's traditional values, specifically the old Catholic values of the conservative church, Brossard was, for many years, afforded protection from prosecution. A resident guest in numerous abbeys and convents, he was financially supported by conservative groups representing both the church and political factions, eventually receiving a pardon by the French President. Now, accused of crimes against humanity, he is on the run, this time not knowing who it is who hunts him. A multitude of brotherhoods, many of them secret, are revealed in all their nefarious dealings as they seek to restore the glorious heritage they believe to be at the very heart of French civilization. Conservative priests, supporters of Pope Pius XII's position during the war, schismatic groups, political organizations opposed to the chauvinism of DeGaulle, police who have crimes of their own to hide, and politicians whose own pasts are far from innocent all have an interest in Brossard's life--or death. Additionally, Jewish groups, who feel that justice has not been done, seek retribution. The suspense here is palpable as various groups seek Brossard for their own ends, and the story is full of action, betrayal, and additional murders. What gives this novel depth is that each group fully justifies their positions on ethical, moral, and philosophical grounds. Moore presents a complex story of the complex French character in ways which are unique, and he does so within a framework of a fast-paced, intellectually challenging pursuit. Jewish readers, in particular, will find the language and attitudes reflected here to be especially offensive--and as horrifying as Moore obviously intends them to be.
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Summary: This book is a spine tingler that keeps you guessing!
Review: Brian Moore does a superb job of giving his reader afeel for what it was like during the Nazi occupation of France. Pierre Brossard is the type of character who inspires mixed emotions. Early in the book you feel he has repented for his sins by embracing the Catholic Church. As the book continues you realize that Brossard has not really changed at all, and has convinced himself that his killing of the 14 Jews in WWII was justified. You really feel the suspense at the end of the book wondering if he will get away! Wonderful book! I would highly recommend it!
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Summary: Can crimes against humanity be forgiven?
Review: Brian Moore has succeeded in writing a story regarding war crimes in France. The whole story is centered around the death of fourteen Jews at Dombey and their executioner named Brossard. This fugutive from justice has been protected at the highest levels of government and by the Catholic Church. All is done in the guise of some sort of false ideals of French nationalism. The story is an intriging one. There are the Chevaliers, Catholic clergy and monastic orders all protecting Brossard. In the end, it is surprising to see who actually brings this man to justice, unfortunately all for the wrong reasons, because you see Brossard's death masks the crimes of others. This book is a great one to read and I would recommend it to anyone
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Summary: Religious-political thriller par excellence
Review: Brian Moore's "The Statement" is a religious-political thriller par excellence. From start to finish, the pace never lets up. The refugee war criminal with blood on his hands is harboured by friends in high places and hunted relentless by enemies seeking revenge for the war crimes he perpetrated during the Nazi era in France. His razor-sharp antennae goes into overdrive each time danger approaches, with surprising results. That he is a ruthless criminal with a dangerously flawed conscience there is no doubt, so when he comes to his sticky end, there's only the feeling that he's had his just deserts. But has justice been done ? What about his powerful protectors ? Aren't they just as guilty, if not more ? Moore's insightful portrayal of the Catholic Church, its monastries, underground sects and secretive subsidiary organs as human institutions is a powerful reminder that the Church, however catholic, is ultimately comprised of individuals, each with his own thoughts and beliefs, and as long as its members remain also members of secular society, the Church cannot stop them from acting in secret according to the dictates of their own conscience, however flawed or wrongminded. Moore is a master of this genre. "The Statement" has all the ingredients of a first class thriller that will satisfy his fans and win over lots more.
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Summary: Good God. Longest 250-page Book in History
Review: How this managed to garner 21 reviews (at time of this writing) is beyond me; I can't believe 21 people actually finished the book. I picked this up at the library last week and it has been used exclusively as a sleep aid ever since. Along with "The Statement," I picked up one of Dennis Lehane's pre-"Mystic River" novels. I should have just stuck with Lehane and read his book twice. "The Statement" is slow. Ploddingly slow. "Pre-schooler reading aloud" slow. What's incredible is that the book (hardcover) is only 250 pages and uses the largest "regular" print I've ever seen. Moore clearly had to work to cross the 200-page mark, and it shows. I wonder if he was bored writing this, because that shows, too. The story is confusing, fails to build appropriately, and is overall flat-out dull. Moore spends far too much time introducing new, uninteresting (and irrelevant) characters than developing what really could be an exhilarating topic. To add to a reader's misery, the writing is plain horrid. I am a working screenwriter and have much respect for novelists -- but huge swaths of this book make me cringe: wholly unrealistic dialogue; random and uncomfortable cuts between the past and present-day; speeches by characters that begin "Everyone knows..." and then proceed to catch you up on major plot points that couldn't be successfully weaved into the story; the unexplainable disregard for tense and point-of-view (the book hops randomly between third- and first-person -- which theoretically could be used for dramatic effect, but here is simply bad, bad, bad). The hunting down of war criminals is a concept ripe for a compelling thriller treatment. "The Statement" is simply ripe and, quite frankly, stinks.
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Summary: The hunter and the hunted, how do they think?
Review: Imagery always seems to define how one feels when they read a novel. Brian Moore does an excellent job of creating sceans where the reader feels that he is right along side the characters of the moment as they race through different areas of France. The writing always comprises half a novels readability and Mr. Moore creates an easy to read and entertaining book. Of course the story comprises the other half. The story, in this case, concerns the plight of a convicted French war criminal in his 70s. A man who hates as the Nazi's hated. A man who has been on the run for over 40 years. The story grows as the novel progresses and the reader develops and grows an understanding of the characters as the story continues. An interesting and entertaining story whichs has one rooting, at times, for a man that is truly repulsive. The author shows that no man really believes that he is evil, that he is wrong, and when one views life through different eyes they often arrive at different conclusions. From the old man to the hunters to the clergy one receives an idea of where each individual receives his or her motivation. And then the book ends. The greatest and weakest part of any story tends to occur when the story ends. The same is true in Mr. Moore's novel THE STATEMENT which ends in an appropriate enough manner but in such a way that leaves the reader hungry for more. Having mastered the various characters the reader now is curious to see just what will happen next. But like in life there is generally no set answer and no easy hollywood answer. While the novel is not a classic or the read of the summer the story is well constructed and well written. Its an entertaining read and one that the reader might remember in years to come.
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Summary: Good God. Longest 250-page Book in History
Review: It can be said that Brian Moore's "The Statement" is pure nitroglycerine. Explosive as it is, this novel is a mix of revengeful Jews and Catholic priests who protected a nazi officer. All that written in razor sharp prose could turned out in a big mess, but in these talented writer's hands is an unpudownable thriller with some philosophical and ethical issues. One seminal sentence is stated near the end of the novel but it defines all the story is about. "Murder is much more of a selling item than old wartime tales". Pierre Brossard is a man on the run for almost fifty years. What he lives cannot be called a life any longer, but a big wartime lie. He was a nazi officer, accused of killing fourteen Jews. Since the end of the War he has found help and been hidden by Catholic priests. He's got away with for all this time. However, now, he's been chased. A group of Jews are looking for revenge and contract an assassin to kill Brossard. At the same time, the French government and military are trying to find Brossard before, not to protect him, but to give him the trial and punishment he deserves. Using three different sequence of narrative --Brossard, the assassin and the military-- Moore's novel is developed in a crescendo until its end. This may not be a big surprise, but they way the writer develops the story until it is reached is a big bravura. Above all, "The Statement" is the portray of the personification of the evil. While Brossard may look like a nice old gentleman, he has no second thoughts when it comes to killing to protect his past and life and lie. Moore has created such a convincing character that the readers have no ethical issues when thinking of Brossard --he was evil, and deserves to be punished, but, it is up to each reader to decide which punishment the ex-officer deserves. The cast of supporting characters may seem a little flat, but that's the way they are required for this novel. Would we follow their lives `outside' the main plot, this would disturb the sequence of the story. There is no much interest in who they are outside Brossard's story. I liked this thriller a lot. I think it is well written and tackles in a respective way with serious issues that many writers will never feel comfortable enough to write about. The `omission' of the Catholic Church in the Holocaust is a subject that has started being explored with the much deserves seriousness by the literature and cinema only in the recent years. For further information, check Costa-Gavra's "Amen". The subject is real and serious, and when one comes to think of that it really may have happened "The Statement" reaches another level, and almost becomes a horror book. Something for our times.
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Summary: Hitler's other willing executioners
Review: Moore's novel literally starts with a bang as Pierre Brossard, a 70 year old Catholic Frenchman, outguns an assassin who has been sent to kill him. On the assassin's body he finds a statement from the "Committee for Justice for the Jewish Victims of Dombey", claiming responsibility for the execution of Brossard. It turns out that Brossard has been a fugitive for over forty years, having participated in the murder of 14 Jews in 1944. During that time he has been protected by sympathetic members of the Catholic Church, provided with funds, hiding places, transportation and false papers. At one point, they even secured a presidential pardon for him, but then he was charged with a "crime against humanity", against which the pardon offers no dispensation. 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
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Summary: Brian Moore is Graham Greene's favorite living novelist.
Review: Pierre Brossard was a low-level functionary in Vichy France.He's been on the run for more than 40 years and has twicebeen condemned to death in absentia. His protectors can be found within the police department and the Catholic Church. But now there are assassins on his trail and the word has gone out: no more sanctuary for M. Pierre.
> Though fiction, this book offers the reader a chance to understand something of what if was like to be in France during the Nazi occupation. Did you get along by going along with the puppet government of Marshall Petain? Or did you risk your life in the Resistance Movement? Pierre Brossard is living with the choice he made, but if the dark forces against him -- and who, exactly, are they? -- catch up with him, he will be living no longer.
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Summary: OK thriller which ponders quite a few philosophical issues
Review: The fascination one may have with say The Day Of The Jackal may not extend to The Statement. Why is this? At bottom I think it is to do with characterisation. Although The Statement is much richer in its consideration of philosophical questions, moral dilemmas, and the nature of justice, and although it is a competent thriller with some suspense, the characterisation is not especially rich which means as a consequence we, as readers, don't really have the engagement we might otherwise have. As a Belfast born Irishman, politics and religion would seem natural areas of interest for the author as they have proved to be over a writing career spanning fifty years. And they remain fascinating. On the other hand they are not enough to sustain the craftsmanship of this novel. Frankly, I found The Statement a bit of a disappointment.
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