It was strange to read that French author Jean Lartéguy, nom de plume of Jean Pierre Lucien Osty, had died. Granted, he was an old man, but still, I knew that Jamie Hailer, who also died within the last day or so, had been trying to get permission to reprint his 1960s novel, The Centurions.
It turned out that Jamie lost the race to another publisher, as told here in Slate.
I had the book assigned as a text in one of my courses in college, a course on Counter-Insurgency. Later the book became a movie, with Anthony Quinn, The Lost Command. My professors in that course—team taught—were very prescient.
An insightful journalist and novelist has passed away. Not everything out of France is bad. Some is very good.
Regards — Cliff
Recently watched again the movie Battle of Algiers. What a great movie.
ReplyDeleteYes, but did your Father have you read The Question when you were in High School?
ReplyDeleteThe "companion" book is The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counterterrorism in Algeria 1955-1957. As a consequence of some interviews and the book, the author, [General] Paul Aussaresses, was stripped of his rank and his Légion d'honneur. If I find it, should I mail it?
Regards — Cliff