O.K., Joe !

by Louis Guilloux

En août 1944, la Bretagne vient d'être libérée, Guilloux est enrôlé par l'armée américaine en qualité d'interprète. Il participe aux enquêtes puis aux jugements de G.I., accusés le plus souvent d'avoir violé des paysannes. Guilloux nous raconte cette troublante expérience d'auxiliaire de la justice militaire. Car si les procédures semblent formellement observées, si le droit est respecté, peu à peu, un doute, une inquiétude s'installe : on ne juge et on ne condamne que des Noirs.

Genres: War, France, Nonfiction, French Literature, Realistic Fiction, Race

144 pages, Pocket Book

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Louis Guilloux was a French known for his Social Realist novels describing working class life and political struggles in the mid-twentieth century. His best-known book is Le Sang noir (Black Blood), which has been described as a "prefiguration of Sartre's La Nausée."

Before becoming a professional writer, literary translator and interpreter, Guilloux worked in various trades, including journalism. He was well known for his fluency in the English language. He married in 1924, and published La Maison du Peuple in 1927.

The success of the book led to a long series of novels on socially committed themes, usually based in his native Brittany. His masterpiece Le Sang Noir was notable for its departure from his earlier, more staightforwardly socialist literature, since it contains elements of what was later associated with an existentialist or absurdist vision. It centres on the suicidal thoughts of the anti-hero, Cripure, who feels overwhelming disgust at humanity in the destructive circumstances of militarism during World War I.

Contrasted with the figure of Cripure is the nominal hero, Lucien, who aspires to work for a better future. But the grotesque and self-excoriating visions of Cripure are repeatedly portrayed as more powerful and compelling than Lucien's idealism. The book was translated into English under the title Bitter Victory.

Le Pain des Rêves (Bread of Dreams), which he wrote during the Occupation, won the Prix du roman populiste in 1942. After the liberation of France, Guilloux worked as an interpreter for the American Army of occupation. In "OK Joe!" he explored racial inequalities and injustice in the segregated American army of the time. Guilloux's experiences at this time are described by Alice Kaplan in her 2006 book The Interpreter.

His 1949 novel Le Jeu de Patience (Game of Patience) won the Prix Renaudot. It has been described as his most experimental work, "an intricate text demanding patient reconstitution by the reader. Micro- and macro-history collide: the horrors of war, and anarchist and Popular Front politics or right-wing coups, impinge violently on private dramas. It is a haunted kaleidoscope, often hallucinatory."

Guilloux was also a translator of a number of books, including the novel 'Home to Harlem' written by black American author Claude McKay, published in 1932 under the title Ghetto Noir. He also translated John Steinbeck, Margaret Kennedy, and Robert Didier, and some of the Hornblower series of novels by C.S. Forester. Towards the end of his life he created scripts for television adaptations of literary classics.

Louis Guilloux was friendly with many notable writers. He knew the philosopher Jean Grenier from his teenage years, and was close to Albert Camus. He was also friends with André Malraux and Jean Guéhenno. Camus praised his work highly, and compared his story Compagnons (Companions) to Leo Tolstoy's 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich.'

Reviews

[Laurent QUERE · Rating 4 out of 5]

En 1944 l'écrivain briochin Louis Guilloux est réquisitionné par l'armée américaine pour servir d'interprète lors de procès en cours martiale. Ces procès concernent des GI ayant commis des viols ou des meurtres. Ce sont uniquement des noirs qui figurent au banc des accusés et ils seront fréquemment condamnés à mort. Guilloux s'en étonne mais n'obtiendra pas d'explication rationnelle. Inversement un officier blanc sera bizarrement acquitté après avoir abattu un soldat français d'une balle dans le dos. Ce témoignage, malgré ou en raison de ses non dits est troublant et instructif. L'envers du décor vu de l'intérieur. Le livre nous plonge en effet dans une période trouble et méconnue, la fin des combats en 1944 en Bretagne au moment de la libération de Brest, sur fond d'épuration et de règlements de comptes. Je n'avais rien lu de cet auteur pourtant reputé en Bretagne, qui a mis 30 ans à trouver le recul pour écrire ce livre et relater cette expérience pour le moins bizarre. Force est de reconnaître qu'il a trouvé le ton juste.

[Charlotte Vasseur · Rating 5 out of 5]

J’ai adoré cette histoire ! Grande passionnée de la période de la seconde guerre mondiale, j’avais hâte de lire ces faits qui m’étaient inconnus (les procès de soldats noirs ayant fait le débarquement). C’est très bien écrit, c’est critique du racisme et de la peine de mort. A lire.

[Patrick Fabri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Court récit édifiant, qui vient de re-sortir en collection Poche. À lire.

[Jacques Lafosse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Histoire d un employe de Mairie en Bretagne que pendant la Liberation est embauché comme interprete par les GIs. Ils se trouve a travailler en Cours Martial, jugeant uniquement des noirs qui ont tué ou violé des francais (es). Il s étone de ne pas avoir des blancs inculpés. Ils sont presque tous condamnés a la mort. Montre aussi l'ingenmuité des americains et comme deja en 1944 ils ammenaietn tout sur le champ de bataille.

[Elsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

j’ai acheté ce livre en me disant qu’il allait être au moins un peu conforme à son résumé. cependant j’ai été vraiment déçue. cette j’ai bien aimé l’alternance entre le français et l’anglais et la rapidité à laquelle le livre c’est lu. cependant, je n’ai pas compris réellement l’intérêt, pourquoi raconter qu’une moitié d’histoire. j’ai été réellement déçue…

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really a review but notes to self. The issues that this book related might be ones that should be explored further. I had never heard of the trials, convictions, etc of US soldiers while still in Europe during and shortly after WWII. Especially with the overwhelming cases being more racially motivated....

[Sandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing. This was referenced in another book I read about the unfair conviction and sentencing of many black soldiers in WW2 in France, but it didn't really reveal much in the way of evidence or testament, rather it was a dull diary of an interpretor.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Court récit de Louis Guilloux qui fût interprète pour l'armée américaine lors de la libération en Bretagne. Facile à lire.

[Magda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plus que jamais d’actualité. Court et poignant, un peu comme filmé caméra à l’épaule.

[Audrey ☀️ ☀️]

dnf 😐

[Alexandre Ciriez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Œuvre très courte qui démystifie les événements passés au cours de la Libération avec pas mal de punch !

Louis Guilloux nous partage son expérience d'interprète pour les juges américains. Parcourant la campagne bretonne, sans fioritures il met en lumière l'ambivalence de la justice américaine et dénonce la ségrégation raciale qui sévit dans les rangs de cette armée mystifiée par nous français.

Marquant, écœurant, mon seul regret est ce format trop court pour un sujet abordé d'une telle intensité.

"Il n’y a pas de justice pour les nègres dans l’armée américaine."

[Pascale · Rating 1 out of 5]

Born in 1899 in Brittany, Louis Guilloux was already recognized by his peers when WWII broke out. In fact, he had been invited by André Gide to tour the USSR with him in the 1930s. This experience left him much disillusioned with the communist state, and unable to believe in a brighter future for mankind. "OK, Joe" is barely a novel, more like the tidying up of unforgettable memories from the author's brief stint as an official interpreter for the American army after the D-day landings in Normandy. Guilloux quickly found out that although the American forces were commendably keen to punish their own troops when they committed crimes against the French civilian population, the dark side was that most of the soldiers condemned to the death penalty were black. Guilloux was sensitive to the idealism and sense of duty displayed by most of the officers he dealt with and worked for. Yet at the same time he was shocked by how blind they were to their own racial assumptions. The book is highly elliptical and without Alice Kaplan's introduction it is a bit of a riddle for today's reader. I can understand why Guilloux was haunted by the fate of the black soldiers who were condemned to death, but disturbed by the fact, disclosed by Kaplan, that he simplified the cases reported to make the black soldiers appear exclusively as victims of racial injustice. Guilloux's style is dry and matter of fact and didn't do much for me. His book documents a state of mind that's understandable but sad. He felt no real joy at all at the liberation of France and describes his narrator as walking throughout it all as some kind of zombie. Convinced that the Americans were as flawed as the Russian communists, and finding further proof of that in their handling of their own black troops, he had no hope whatsoever and this book distills a gloomy atmosphere. I expected more of a pamphlet but in the end it's mostly a very depressed book. It has some historical relevance but doesn't seem to me very accomplished as a work of art.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A vivid on-the-scene distillation of an actual courtroom drama AND of post Liberation (France, August-September 1944), World War II.

“I love and admire the work of Louis Guilloux, which neither flatters nor disdains the people it portrays and which grants them the only dignity they cannot be denied — that of the truth.” Albert Camus.

“Guilloux is still revered today as a writer of deep social commitment, a brilliant autodidact, and, as Saint-Brieue proclaimed him, ‘A man of his word.’.’ … In speaking for the Breton farmers who are victims of American crime, Guilloux’s voice is preserved for history. For the translator of Guilloux into English, the record of his own English voice is a precious gift.” Alice Kaplan (translator).

An illuminating book. (In only 135 pages!)

[Ashley Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is definitely your different kind of WWII book. Fascinating viewpoint. If you're an American reading this book, be prepared to get something besides a glowing "holier-than-thou" impression of the American G.I. situation in France.

[Ken · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is different look at some of the happenings shortly after the D-Day landings. It's written by a Frenchman who acted as interpreter at court marshals of American soldiers who were accused by French people.