A Question of Loyalties

by Allan Massie

 
Widely acclaimed as Allan Massie’s finest novel, explores the complexities of loyalty, nationality, and family legacy after the horrors of World War II. Rife with the anguish of hindsight and the irony of circumstance, this powerful book is “addictively narrated . . . Out of one broken man’s story evolves the weighty history and treachery of a whole era” ( ).
 
Etienne de Balafré, half French, half English, and raised in South Africa, returns to postwar France to unravel the tangled history of his father. Was Lucien de Balafré a patriot who served his country as best he could in difficult times, or a treacherous collaborator in the Vichy government?
 

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, France, Book Club, Literary Fiction

432 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 15, 1989

About the author

Allan Massie is a Scottish journalist, sports writer and novelist. Massie is one of Scotland's most prolific and well-known journalists, writing regular columns for The Scotsman, The Sunday Times (Scotland) and the Scottish Daily Mail. He is also the author of nearly 30 books, including 20 novels. He is notable for writing about the distant past.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allan Massie is an exceptionally fine novelist and one of his perrenial subjects is betrayal, being true to oneself, being true to duty, family, etc. I have read many of his fine historical novels examining the lives of Augustus, Mark Anthony, Nero, king Arthur, Roland and many, many more all of which he portrays with subtlety and fineness of touch that is really remarkable.

'A Question if Loyalties' was, at the time of its publication, probably his finest novel. The complexities of the Vichy regime and the periods in French history both before and after it are fascinating, complex and too little comprehended by outsiders. In this novel Massie shows how the problems and challenges of loyalty and even understanding let alone accepting what one duties and loyalties' are can be nearly impossible. Wanting to do good, meaning to do good are not enough and good intentions are perhaps the worst guide to understanding any action.

I don't want to get involved in the details of the story because the less a potential reader knows the better. Despite my praise I have two reservations. One is stylistic, a large portion of the book is supposed to be made of the writings of one of the characters. It doesn't read like and I simply ignored what it was supposed to be and just treated it as if it was simply part of the novel. Clearly that is not very good, but the writing and story was so engaging I was able to ignore this flaw which in another novel I would not have tolerated.

My second reservation is more serious and is with regards to the character Lucian who is involved with various right wing parties, groups and ideas before WWII and then as minister in Vichy. Massie never gets to grip with the unpleasant side of Lucian's politics, the rabid antisemitism the obsessions with Free Masons the narrow cramped Catholicism that was attached to a view of the world that had not advanced since 1789. It is fine to have him believe in certain old fashioned verities of noblesse oblige, etc. but a part of the people and organisations he gravitates to hate democracy, refuse to accept that a Jew could be Frenchman and many, many other dubious and unattractive opinions. If he doesn't hold those opinions Massie needed to explain how he could associate himself with these people. If he does hold these opinions then it is Massie's job to make that explicable without necessarily excusing or justifying the beliefs.

It might sound that between those two items you have enough to condemn the novel but I can not emphasise enough what a really fine novel this is. It isn't perfect and many of the issues raised in this novel in his more recent 'Bordeaux' quartet which I will review eventually. Massie's ability to capture the flaws and virtues of his characters is breath taking for its honesty. It is, for all its faults a wonderful novel.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is about the quest by Etienne de Balafre to find out about how his father, Lucien, died during WWII. It is the story of both Etienne and Lucien.

After the collapse of the French army to the Nazis in 1940, Lucien, a French intellectual and publisher of a literary magazine, is induced by Marshal Petain to become a minister in the Vichy government. The novel does a good job of presenting to the reader the difficulties faced by Lucien in deciding whether to support the Vichy regime or the resistance led by de Gaulle from London. As an American reader, I had the over-simplified notion that the Vichy collaborators were mere cowardly defeatists and that the French resistance were the real heroes. Massie shows that things were more complex than that.

One of my favorite passages in the book is the following: "We are all placed in History, landed there, involuntarily and unconsulted. Some generations have the apparent good fortune to be able to feel free of History. No great questions disturb the tenor of their life. Yet even such people are formed by their historical experience. The questions posed may seem trivial to another more strenuous age. They are still not of their own making. Every new age asks new questions of candidates who have had no opportunity to prepare for the examination."

Another favorite part of the novel appears in Chapter 3 of Part Two where Massie writes movingly about the ill-fated romance between Etienne and Freddie, a young woman whom Etienne meets during a visit to his uncle Armand's in Normandy while a college student in 1951. These passages reveal Massie's ability convincingly to recreate the emotions of two young people in their first loves and show that Massie is more than just a writer of historical fiction. The circumstances leading to the break-up of this romance, as well as the events involving Etienne's half-brother, Jacques, and the local garagiste, Simon, show that choices made during the War had long-lasting effects.

This novel is not a quick read. It starts slowly, and does not become a compelling read until Part Two. In addition to simply writing about characters and events, Massie writes about ideas, motivations and complex choices which must be made in the face of historical uncertainties. You will want to stop, think and reread. The book is well worth the effort.

[Dave Ireland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book that clarifies the complexities of life in Vichy France and questions of morality and 'decency' under the extreme stresses of war and occupation by a foreign power. Before reading this I assumed that Second World War figures liked Marshall Petain and Pierre Laval were simply evil Nazi stooges. Of course, life is never that simple and we learn, through Massie's excellent writing, the deeply troubling dilemmas faced by people with conflicting demands placed upon them, who want to do what is 'right'. The awful pressures of trying to steer a course between the personal and political and keep a clear conscience in doing so are horribly evident in this throughly engaging book.

[Mbuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an emotionally very draining novel. Leaving religion and hate out of it altogether, and looking only at the ideology, nothing so divides a family as politics. How much more in a time of war, especially when one is young, should there be such a burning need to die for the sake of one's principles? For if there is no loyalty towards a principle, how then can one be loyal to one's family, much less to one's country? The Vichy government has rightly been condemned for knuckling down to Nazi Germany during WWII, but it is easy to forget that at the time, the majority of Frenchmen supported it, buoyed by the idea of a resurgent France.

Allan Massie explores the motives that prompt a decent, honourable young Frenchman to support the Vichy government - and thus the entire horror of the Nazi war machine - through the eyes of his son who was brought up in South Africa and never saw his father. The father's choices are between fascism and communism, between Reynaud and Pétain, de Gaulle and Laval, between a French Renaissance and a Free France. All his life he has been fighting against the kind of bolshevism that works only through anarchy and terror, and towards a France Renewed. Pétain is a family friend, one who has been like a father to him. Lucien de Balafré's choices are hardened by the sight of Frenchmen running away from a battle where without a shot being fired, indeed without even catching sight of the enemy, the officers desert their men to find shelter at any price. What could his choice be? Whatever it might have been, it was sure to invite criticism in the brilliant light of hindsight, regardless of who won the war.

Like the reader, the son sees the father at second-hand, through letters and memories that are tender or prejudiced. The language of evocation, of sadness, of love and the different kinds of loyalty colour this book, which has been described the author's greatest work.

[Louise Fincham · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another war, the final war, has broken out in the open air prison camp, Gaza. There is so much suffering on both sides that it is impossible to espouse the cause of either. This novel which focuses on Vichy France is a timely reminder that often very decent human beings support a cause for what history will judge the wrong reasons but which are in their hearts are the right ones. So Lucien, the central protagonist, joins Petain’s government in Vichy because he believes it is the only way to save France - this is encapsulating the plot very clumsily if not brutally. In the end he cannot endure the thought of Frenchmen being sent as conscript workers to Germany. When terrible events confront individuals what is expected of us? If only, having started these wars, we could learn to forgive the other side for the consequences suffered afterwards. This is a masterful, scholarly novel. I had forgotten how much I enjoy Massie’s writing, how it elevates and enriches my understanding and appreciation of history and above all of our language.

[James Anderson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat slow moving, lengthy novel with a complex plot and where most of the characters appear to be related to or have had some form of interactions with the others in the past that allow the full complexity of the central character and his past, to become exposed. This was one of the few novels which I have read which involve attitudes to those who served in the Vichy government during the second world war and in this sense, I benefited a great deal from its reading as it made me consider the role of France and the French in all their different forms during the period of the Nazi occupation. The text is well written and was a good introduction to the works of Allan Massie

[Charles Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book by chance. I get a newsletter called BookBub every day. It offers books for Kindles at $1.99 each. I saw Question of Loyalities and began reading a sample. Then I bought it. Then I began to read and read. It was incredible. I had never heard of the book or the author. The focus is on the son of someone who collaborated with the pro-German (Nazi) Vichy regime. The son barely knew his father or how he died. This investigation opens up myriad sub stories that in the end tie together beautifully. I just loved this book.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 1/2. Everything you know about the Vichy government has to be rethought. Most Frenchmen supported Vichy and it was not until the end that many changed sides. Collaborators or Patriots? Troubling dilemmas faced by people who want to do what is right. The book starts slow but the complex plot picks up in part two and is in the end very thought provoking.

[Kaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 even.
Excellent look at the ambiguity and complexity of war-time France, the situation to be viewed as a civil war with right and wrong on both sides. Very thought-provoking.

[Ed Ackert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent writing style. Interesting exploration of all the conflicting ideologies and politics of the intra-war years. Some elements of a good mystery.

[Peter Burton · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intelligent,even an intellectual, book but slow moving and hard to get into.It’s about pre war and Vichy France and the choices people made in response to Hitler’s invasion.

[Andrew Wardle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. An author I'd never heard of. I bought the book in a second-hand shop because the cover illustration and synopsis intrigued me. And it has muscled its way into my top 10.
A comfortably-off middle-aged man of mixed English and French parentage is flattered by the attention of a foreign academic wishing to write a biography of his father. He is encouraged to look into the life of a man he hardly knew, who family tradition reveres as a French patriot who died for France in 1944. What he discovers is far more ambiguous and calls into question comfortable assumptions about patriotism, duty, collaboration and resistance. No more about the plot for fear of spoilers. But it is brilliant, and very well-written. Like Javier Marias, another author I revere, he discusses the impossibility of knowing the past and the effects of prejudice and preconception on our every memory.
Some insightful quotations: "Reflected fame detracts from the identity of the person on whom the reflection falls";
"In the most sincere moments of emotion we fall back on words so shop-soiled as to have lost all meaning";
"Our knowledge of what is real is conditioned by the imagination of others";
"History is written from then to now, but understood back to front";
"The memory of lust is sharper than its anticipation can ever be";
"What do you do when you have lost a war ?.......not everyone can retire into private life and pretend it never happened";
"All revolutions since (1789) have been the same. They claim to eliminate evil but then men find evil in themselves";
"Biography pretends to tell the truth about people's lives, but can deal only with what is revealed, which is often not true";
(The narrator's brother on his ex-wife): "She bore the armour of immaturity preserved in champagne";
"If. If. If. Life is difficult enough without counting unfulfilled conditionals";
"I know how noble ideals bring misery to the poor and weak"

[Hilary · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a long time since a book has made me think as much as this one did. Massie explores the question of patriotism and integrity through the different paths that two brothers choose when France falls to Germany in WW2. Lucien, an intellectual who respects Pétain from his record in WW1, decides to join the government of Vichy France while his brother Armand joins De Gaulle’s Free French Forces. Both feel they are acting in the best interests of France. It is rare that a writer puts forward the case for those who supported Vichy France but Massie does so to considerable effect reminding the reader that at the time no-one could guess the outcome of the war. Indeed as we know many were those who switched sides when they saw which way the wind was blowing.
The plot and structure are extremely complicated with a long list of characters and locations – I wish I had made notes of the significant names when I started out. The story unfolds through a series of documents as Etienne attempts to discover the mystery surrounding his father’s death at the end of the war and the contempt in which he seems to be held. His father believed he was doing what was in France’s best interests, while supporting the plot to assassinate Hitler, and becoming a confidant of Laval. His fear was that communism was a greater threat than fascism so he closed his eyes to the horrors of the Hitler regime.
Etienne is advised to “tell [your daughter] how we can never judge what’s right, and how our best intentions are corrupted”. This is at the heart of the moral dilemmas faced by these characters viewing things only from their own, often narrow, perspectives.
There are rather too many coincidences at the end of the novel, and it’s a challenging read but well written.

[ErnstG · Rating 5 out of 5]

An examination of loyalties -- to family, friends, ideals, countries and governments. The main plot is about the net result of the incremental accommodations we make, and where this ends up; also what this looks like in the cold light of dawn. Drawn masterfully -- one of the best books I have read in my life.

p218 dealing with reality means accepting that they had lost the war and must come to an accommodation with the enemy. ''Once you have the virtue to confront the facts, then you will find yourself compelled to act as we have acted, often, I confess, in ways that we would not choose. . . ''

p257 winter in Provence

p302 ''So much of life is a matter of coming to terms with the way things are, isn't it? It is tempting to refuse to do so, of course. [...] We've a choice between disillusion and madness, and she chose the latter. I suppose it's gallant in its way.''

p315 ''i believe in nothing, but I don't even do that absolutely. I am the uncommitted observer who will nevertheless gamble everything on a single throw. I find myself nihil humanum alienum, and I have a low opinion of my fellow-humans. Do you remember Chesterton's Father Brown: he said that he was able to solve murders by seeking out the murderer in his heart[...]''

https://americanlibraryinparis.org/a-...

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a remarkable book, incredibly well written and deeply moving. It is the kind of writing for which I wanted to slow down and savor every phrase, sentence and paragraph, rather than rush through it for the plot development. Those who lived in France during the occupation and had to choose sides were faced with unresolvable dilemmas which divided families, towns and the nation. Massie writes about it from the modern-day perspective of a son recreating his father's involvement in the Vichy government through his father's journals and diaries and conversations with remaining family and friends. His perspective is all we have, but, to his credit, his personal feelings about his father and his actions rarely intrude. Regardless of whether you have an interest int he subject matter or not, this novel deserves to be on your bucket list if you're interested in the best fiction of the 20th century.

[Keith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Allan Massie was a new author to me. He has an extensive and interesting catalog: biographies of Roman emperors, almost emperors (Antony), Klaus Mann and King Arthur, plus a trilogy of WW2 French police procedurals and many, many more. A Question of Loyalties is also part of a trilogy, the theme I adduce as fathers and sons. The plot of this one is a older man’s desire to know what his French father did in the war. There is a mystery attached to this investigation. The man had an English mother and spent the war in England after his parents separated. The specific theme of the book is life under occupation, once again of the perilous bridge between accommodation and collaboration. This is a more reflective and philosophic book than Kristin Hanna's The Nightingale which is a passionate and emotional read on the same subject. Both are excellent at what they do

[Lafrog8 · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read because it is a Radio 4 bookclub podcast)

I nearly gave up reading this book during the first part (story of the son just after the second world war) but I'm glad I didn't for two reasons:
Reason 1: the second part tells the story of the father mainly during the Vichy government and it is captivating.
Reason 2: Once you read the third part (the son in later life), the first part makes a lot of sense.

I think every French person that ever wondered which side they would have been on (or think they know!) in the Second World War (Resistance V Collaboration) should read this book. At school we were taught a very black and white version where the good side was obvious... hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written novel that explores issues around loyalty and collaboration and the difficult choices people have to make. On one level I thought Massie was too soft on the Vichy regime, but maybe that's because he writes with the assumption that the reader already knows how cosy they were with the Nazis and exploring one man's choices in detail requires a more sympathetic approach. The attitude of the French during this period is vividly drawn and very depressing - a mixture of fatalism at the impending German invasion and grudging respect for German success, with anti-semitism being the norm amongst ordinary French people. Not an uplifting read, though tense and thought provoking.

[Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well written novel that explores issues around loyalty and collaboration and the difficult choices people have to make. On one level I thought Massie was too soft on the Vichy regime, but maybe that's because he writes with the assumption that the reader already knows how cosy they were with the Nazis and exploring one man's choices in detail requires a more sympathetic approach. The attitude of the French during this period is vividly drawn and very depressing - a mixture of fatalism at the impending German invasion and grudging respect for German success, with anti-semitism being the norm amongst ordinary French people. Not an uplifting read, though tense and thought provoking.

[Joannah Yacoub · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book which explores the ambiguities of France during the occupation. Massie sets out the dilemmas which faced this nation after 1940 and shows how they were both misled and how they deluded themselves about the true state of affairs. Without judgement, he forces us to ask what would we have done in those circumstances. Anyone can be heroic after the event but at the time.....
Decent people often make the wrong choices in times of stress. Allan Massie explores how that happens and how an event, brushed under the carpet to this day, can have catastrophic consequences for future generations. A truly fine book.

[Mark Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving and thought-provoking novel about personal loyalty, patriotism, courage, love and fate. Allan Massie's hero is an intellectual in France faced with the dilemma of what to do when Hitler overruns France. He is a patriot but his form of patriotism leads him to choose to stay in Vichy France and help accommodate the country to a new way of life under Nazi rule. This book makes it impossible to take a simplistic negative view of all those Frenchmen who did not join De Gaulle or fight in the resistance. A magnificent read!

[Adrian Hunt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It wasn't until about 100 pages into the book that I started to enjoy the story and appreciate the writing. Initially I was disappointed that it seemed to focus too much on the narrator, an older middle aged man, and his teenage romance. I now, however, think it was part of the artifice and by the end I was gripped and did not want to leave the world Massie had created. Not quite sure about how successful the motif of South Africa was but it didn't mar the book in anyway.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book. I know very little about the Vichy government and this was recommended as a way to find out more about it. I was astonished to discover, although it is pretty obvious really, that so many people supported the Vichy government and that de Gaulle was regarded with such suspicion.
The book shows so well that nothing is black and white - and that really it is impossible to judge what people did at that time.

[Eunice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only is this a thought provoking book but, it taught me much about Vichy France that I didn't know before. I love Allan Massie's ability to convey the sense of people struggling to make the right decisions based on their perceptions of what is right and wrong at the time and to convey the sense that what was right or wrong was not clear to them as it is to us with the benefit of hindsight.

[Marg · Rating 4 out of 5]

A complex story about a man who wants to understand his father's life during World War II in France. It is a story about how people responded to events during that war in a France that is shocked by the collapse of its army and the options presented by two well-known figures: Charles de Gaulle and Marshal Petain. I'm tempted to read the second and third books in this trilogy because of the good writing and thoughtful presentation of the dilemmas faced by the author's characters.

[Lorna · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a rereading which I enjoyed just as much as the first time. Indeed at times it felt it was the first time as there is so much in it It is quite a dense book but very readable. Seeped in French attitudes to WW2 and time around it.

[Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the Etienne parts, but thought the Lucien part dragged. Is it supposed to be ironic when one character says "Don't tell me about the history of Europe, just tell me about your father"?

[Joss Bolton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional novel.