by Jo Baker
This book is by the author of Longbourn, which I have also read.
It is a story about Samuel Beckett and his life in France during WWII.
The books starts off just prior to WWII and describes the social life of Beckett as he hangs out with famous people in the artistic community in Paris including James Joyce and Duchamp.
However, as WWII starts and France is invaded the artistic community leave Paris for safer locations.
It describes how Beckett could have returned to Ireland and had a safe life, as Ireland was neutral. But instead he decides to stay in France with his lover Suzanne. Things deteriorate rapidly, food becomes scare, they have little money to live on and Beckett is struggling to write.
Then they get invovled with the resistance and eventually their group is infiltrated so they must obtain new indentity papers and escape Paris. They are often hiding in barns, fields, they are often hungry as being in hiding they cannot get ration coupons. The title refers to a night when they were waiting to be picked up and taken to a safe location. They were told to wait by a tree on a country road but were not sure if they were by the right tree.
They get involved with the resistance again in the south of France, passing information, carrying weapons to resistance fighters. Beckett's health suffers as he is on the verge of starvation. He is in pain because of his bad teeth. The book does a superb job of portraying the situation on citizens and the resistance and the hardships they endured.
Near the end of the book Beckett has returned to Ireland and is living with his mother. He is appalled and embarrassed at the ordinary life there, with cakes and cream. It seems obscene compared to the deprivation he knows people in France are still facing. He wants to go back to France but unskilled people are not really wanted. A doctor friend of his invites him to join him as Quartermaster, setting up a small hospital in rurual France. Beckett jumps at the chance and is eventually able to get back to Suzanne.
This was a fascinating book. It makes me want to read Beckett again, I think I will now have a better understanding of the reason for the angst and despair in his works.
