topics: |  fiction-short

Two ideas for films, followed by a small novella.

Kirkus:
Far from a major addition to the Greene oeuvre, but a curious, intense,
ironic tale reminiscent of Georges Simenon's better exercises in darkly
psychological suspense. The setting is Nazi-occupied France during WW II; the
Germans have filled a prison with innocent Frenchmen--to use as hostages in
case of anti-German activities by the French townfolk. So, after two German
soldiers in the town are murdered, the "orders are that one man in every ten
shall be shot in this camp." And when a single, middle-aged Paris lawyer
named Chavel draws one of the fatal lots, he offers all his wealth--cash,
country house--to anyone who'll take his place before the firing squad: a
young fellow nicknamed "Janvier" agrees, making sure that his new fortune
will be passed on to his mother and sister. Jump, then, to postwar
France--where the shamed lawyer, now calling himself Chariot, can find no
work, is near starvation...and pathetically arrives at his old
country-house, now inhabited (gypsy-style) by Janvier's old mother and young
sister Therese. But, though Therese is obsessed with hatred for the cowardly
lawyer who enticed her brother to his death, she never suspects that
"Chariot" is this very man: she lets him stay on as handyman; he slowly
falls hopelessly in love with her, unable to share his dark, guilty
secret. And when a thoroughgoing villain--a con-man/actor who falsely claims
to be the real Chavel--later arrives at the house, anti-hero Chariot becomes
something of a true hero, redeeming his previous cowardice. Less than fully
satisfying, with characters who remain only sketches--but full of sharp
Greene touches (including a button-down priest) amid the slightly murky
Simenon-esque landscape.