French literature has always been a force to be reckoned with in the world literary scene, from Le Clézio, who won the Nobel Prize in Literature, to Milan Kundera in "Living Elsewhere", from the shores of Walden to the popular Duras, Sartre, Camus and others, the names of every writer have resounded at every stage of my life.
Pierre Lemet is another master writer in France after the 1950s, and won the Goncourt Prize, the supreme award for French literature, for his novel "Goodbye from Heaven".
Subsequently, the work was adapted into a film, winning the 43rd French César Film Awards Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Costume, Best Set Five Awards, Twelve Nominations.
It can be said that this is an uncompromising work of French typical literature, full of romantic, gorgeous, sharp and unspeakable painful contradictions.
The story tells the story of The French soldier Albert and Edward during World War I who survived nine deaths on the battlefield. They witnessed their superiors artificially creating a dying counterattack for honor, and sent their soldiers to die.
After the war, the soldiers who fought in bloody battles were hastily dispatched, but the murderers were added to the ranks and knights, and they were glorious and rich. Albert and Edward, after all sorts of inhuman encounters, came up with a way to punish the wicked.
This "Goodbye in Heaven" can see the tone of the whole story from the title, a romantic tragedy.
Albert originally had a harmonious family, a decent job, and a beautiful fiancée. Wounds in the war ruined everything. Edward was originally a high-society man, sensitive with a little naïveté. They fought in the war to defend their country, and after the war they were abandoned by their own country. Watching the people who harm themselves rise to the top, they are abandoned by the whole society.
Those who shed their blood in war cannot move forward in peace.
According to normal thinking, the two people who encountered this must be blackened, and the plot should develop in the dark direction. Lemet used a series of complicated masks to make this retaliation look unexpectedly gorgeous.
Here you can see the kind of romance in the bones of the French, no matter in the good times and adversities, you must let yourself live with style.
In addition to describing Albert and Edward's love and hate for the whole society, edward's contradiction with his father is also an important branch line in the book.
Edward's father was a typical feudal patriarch. He was very unaccustomed to Edward's slightly feminine behavior, and felt that if he continued to develop like this, he would become gay. So he took a tough attitude toward Edward and forced his son out of the house.
Edward joined the army in a fit of rage, only to suffer disability and ruin the rest of his life, and ironically, Edward's body, health, reputation, and self-esteem were all destroyed by the same person, and the culprit who harmed him became Edward's brother-in-law, usurping everything that should have belonged to Edward.
It wasn't until the end that the father and son finally untied each other's hearts and released their previous suspicions.
Although Edward resented his father on the surface, he always wanted to be recognized by his father in his heart, and he also wanted to prove his worth when he joined the army. The father's love for Edward, perhaps more appreciated by the parents of the East, is an act that becomes extreme because of fear of the future of the child.
He kept Edward in mind, but because he was worried that Edward would not be accepted by high society in the future, he wanted to force Edward to change. The two did not communicate, leading to a tragic ending.
When Edward received his father's heartfelt confession, his wish was fulfilled. In fact, by the time Edward was injured, his heart was dead. Dragging his dilapidated body, he no longer had any nostalgia for the world.
When Edward jumped off the bridge with his beloved mask on, all his love and hatred were lost and ceased to exist.
I really like the cover of this edition, sad and with a vision of heaven.
Perhaps, in heaven, in the next life, Edward and Albert will have the light and peace they want.