Un rude hiver

By far the hardest of Raymond Queneau's fictional works to find--the action of 'A Hard Winter' is set during the First World War in the Northern French port of Le Havre--where Queneau grew up.

The story revolves around an embittered wounded French soldier Bernard Lehameau who has doubts about France's participation in the war and whose patriotism is questionable when compared to the positive vibes of his other fellow Le Havreans. And he falls in love with a younger English nurse--Helena Weeds. As it happens he is also a widower and has been celibate for many years. And as it happens he makes friends with a young 14 year old girl who is rather smitten with him.

There's an almost deadpan way in which Queneau goes about telling this story which is not unusual in Queneau's prose. The story ends disastrously and that deadpan objective outlook fits the bill just about perfectly. The British and French military authorities frowning on the budding relationship between Bernard and Helena decide to send her home. On the night she sails Bernard is blocked from seeing her off at the port and desperately watches the ship she's on sail off past the horizon. It is a very poignant moment for a doomed affair and rendered very realistically. And to top everything off the ship is torpedoed by a German submarine though most on board survive it's only assumed that Helena is one of them.

In any case Queneau was one of the finest of 20th century French writers and worthy of more attention than he's gotten. This would be an excellent place to start as it is only 128 pages in length--unfortunately though it is not very accessible. IMO his best work was Children of Clay which I consider a masterpiece (hilarious besides) which is somewhat lengthier. If you can't find one of these I would suggest you look for something else. Queneau is well worth it. ( )