In Pierre Lemaitre’s novel We See In Paradise, World War I comes to an end and soldiers at the front line try to get this idea out of their heads, fearing that these omens that run faster than gunpowder will come true. Be very easy to believe, but then very difficult to admit when reality turns its back on faith. In this way, the easy becomes difficult.
This time, however, rumors predict, in fact, what will happen, albeit too late for two soldiers who, in the last twists of this painful massacre, will see their lives united forever, by these invisible bonds that last a lifetime. .
- Romance? And the movie of the same title? It starts inside the trenches themselves.
- Where does an officer come from?Lieutenant Pradelle? He fears the conflict will end without having amassed enough honors.
- To avoid this.
- He does not hesitate to send two of his men to spy on the enemy and kill him in the back.
- Your idea is to provoke one last fight that adds one last famous victory to your service history.
However, because of the fate of life, one of its soldiers?Albert? Pradelle realizes that he has been discovered and yet he does not hesitate to try to kill him, however, this time, luck will not be on his side, since this man he thought he had left buried alive in a hole will not die. .
One of your colleagues? Edward? You can save him when he was near death. A heroic act that, in turn, will not be rewarded with fate, which will leave a shrapnel leaving you with a disfigured face. The war ends for Europe, for France and for the three characters already presented, whose life will be the common thread of the novel.
“Earth has always been through disasters and epidemics, and war is just a combination of the two. “”We see you in paradise. “
Most of Vemos in Paradise are dedicated to the consequences, the challenge of rebuilding the destroyed, of having a life away from the trenches again, where there are other bullets flying and the evils are different, or the same, but with others. Masks. We are witnessing the formation of a real mafia under bought institutions that do not hesitate to trade and take advantage of the pain of an entire country, those families who just want to close their wounds by saying goodbye to their own, burying them in peace. The ones who left, the heroes.
Complicated mission when those who must take care of this task have little or no respect to offer this dignified farewell. The task is complicated and in We see in Paradise we notice that the will is zero. As we add up the two factors, we see the narrative of a disaster.
On the other hand, there are those who have survived physically, not in the mind, those who returned with their hearts beating, but mutilated, disfigured or speechless, for many people are suspected of having survived, of not having given their lives as others have done, ignored by others because they represent an anchor, a past of horror, rarity and fear.
“Every story needs an end, it’s the law of life. It can be tragic, unbearable, ridiculous, but is there always one?”See you in paradise. “
Two of our protagonists are affected by this war, with no chance of going back to the medium they once left behind, we see life take its course, how the survival instinct is maintained, how fears become giant when the thread of life is not cut, either through shoes or paper masks capable of transforming a disfigured face into an acceptable face.
We also see what childhood is like, with its particular way of looking at the world, full of innocence, which often manages to eliminate some of the bitterness that one feels, it is the little ones who first stop focusing on what they see and focus on what we can do.
In addition, in Vemos in Paradise we witness how lost hopes can affect us, how a father has to bury his son before he can accept it. We understand why everyone has felt this before, that feeling of thinking that something doesn’t matter until you find out, discovering in absentia how wrong we were.
Referring to his work, the author himself states that he could not help but refer to Lazarillo de Tormes. Certainly, there is a parallelism in its pages; it is Edward who teaches Albert (his guide) different strategies to survive and enjoy a world that doesn’t want them and doesn’t appreciate them.
In the end, we are faced with delicious work. Faced with an often ironic portrait of how a war not only destroys buildings or the lives of those who fight, it also has the power to destroy entire societies and generations.