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Outrageous Horizon
March 1941. A converted cargo ship, the Paul-Lemerle, left Marseille on a voyage to the Caribbean, fleeing Vichy France and the devastation of the war. The ship was filled with immigrants from the East, exiled Spanish Republicans, Jews, stateless persons and decadent artists. Among them were Claude Lévi-Strauss, the painter Wifredo Lam, the writers Anna Seghers and André Breton, and the Russian revolutionary Victor Serge. Can we know the taste of pineapple from listening to travellers' tales? asks Bosc in the follow-up to his bestselling debut. Can we ever feel the sensation of history? Mixing the documentary techniques of history, the imaginative leaps of fiction and the cool analysis of the essay, Bosc takes us from Marseille to Casablanca to Martinique and on to New York, to tell an evocative story of migration, cultural crisis and the intellectual cost of the rise of fascism.
250 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2018
5 people are currently reading
111 people want to read
About the author
Adrien Bosc
9 books18 followersAdrien Bosc, born in 1986 in Avignon (Vaucluse), is a French writer and editor.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
December 4, 2018
C’est l’histoire d’une échappée en tant de Guerre. En Mars 1941, artistes, intellectuels, inconnus, français, juifs quittent la France à bords du Capitaine Paul Lemerle depuis Marseille pour les Amériques. Fuir cette France occupée ne fut pas une croisière au long cours, traversée de l’incertitude, formalités à chaque port du bassin méditerranéen le voyage prend une tournure inquiétante quand les passagers se retrouvent en quarantaine surveillée à leur arrivée en Martinique, induisant une forte tension, parviendront ils en Amérique? Ici il est question d’un moment de fuite, d’exil, de déshumanisation pour celui qui fuit pour trouver un moyen de poursuivre son existence, préserver sa liberté d’expression. Le récit est précis, documenté, s’appuie sur des lettres des citations. Un moment d’Histoire que l’auteur tente de faire resurgir. A l’évidence il s’agit d’embarquer, de sentir l’importance du moment, et le hasard des événements, de mesurer les doutes, les incertitudes de personnes qui fuient le nazisme pour une Amérique qui ne les attend pas. J’ai embarqué sur ce navire par curiosité, sans déception. La dernière partie du récit permet de cerner le travail d’enquête, à la fois méthodique et hasardeuse d’ Adrien Bosc lorsqu’il relate sa rencontre avec le cinéaste Assayas notamment. A lire pour l’aventure maritime 🛳
December 23, 2024
I won't bother reiterating what this book is about, there is one on GR, all I will say is that this is a dazzlingly, inventive and exciting novel which weaves the facts of history and the lives and biographies of individuals great and small into a tale that is both moving and fascinating and resonates strongly with events of today. It is good and even necessary when we approach today's refugee crisis, to be reminded that it was not so long ago that many Europeans were stateless refugees lost on a real boundless ocean and trapped by a sea of regulations that kept changing and persecuted by a variety of tin-pot petty dictators disguised as bureaucrats and officials who justified their monstrous pettiness, boundless cruelties, and officious indifference to the pain suffering and indignities that those in their power suffered with a casual toss of the head and a dismissive rejoinder that none of it was personal, they did not enjoy or take pleasure in causing hurt to those who were in their power, no, they were just doing their jobs. It is even more important to realize that amongst these earlier refugees were men and women who we now count as ornaments of American culture and civilization and part of the cultural history and patrimony of the world.
But also it is an excellent read - get it and enjoy.
But also it is an excellent read - get it and enjoy.
April 16, 2022
The book is extraordinary, and Frank Wynne's translation is a masterpiece. I haven't read such a profound and vigorously poignant book in a while. Bosc combines history, archival material and his profound sensibility to tell a story of migration, war, displacement and art, but also the stories of people and their journeys, of a continent in shambles and the hope for a peaceful future.
Painfully apt for the times and yet transcendental and transformative.
Painfully apt for the times and yet transcendental and transformative.
August 21, 2018
En mars 1941, le capitaine Paul Lemerle quitte le port de Marseille pour un voyage mouvementé. Il s’achèvera en juin de la même année. Il a à son bord des personnes de tout horizon, fuyant ce qui deviendra la deuxième guerre mondiale.
Des drames se jouent pour pouvoir accéder au bateau et avoir le tampon « VU A L’EMBARQUEMENT ». Certains n’auront pas la chance de monter à bord et de faire le voyage, comme les Espagnols, partant majoritairement pour le Mexique.
« les formalités avaient traîné en longueur, ça s’était agité en tout sens, le ton était vite monté, des cris et puis l’on avait compris : seuls les femmes, les vieux et les enfants seraient autorisés à embarquer, les hommes espagnols valides resteraient à quai. Ordre de la préfecture. Dans un souci de coopération et après la visite de Franco en février 41, un décret passé en catimini interdisait aux ressortissants espagnols adultes de sexe masculin de moins de quarante-huit ans de quitter le territoire, ainsi qu’aux émigrés « dangereux » et « possibles activistes antiallemands. » » (page 52).
Leurs destinations finales sont les Etats-Unis, l’Amérique latine ou le Mexique.
Ils vont être obligés de faire une escale en Martinique où ils apprendront ce que signifient d’être des pestiférés.
Certains auront la chance de rencontrer le couple Suzanne et Aimé Césaire luttant avec leurs armes : l’écriture. Ils rédigent et publient une revue « Tropiques » avec quelques autres.
Extrait de cette revue :
« Où que nous regardions l’ombre gagne. L’un après l’autre, les foyers s’éteignent. Le cercle d’ombre se resserre, parmi des cris d’hommes et des hurlements de fauves. Pourtant nous sommes de ceux qui disent non à l’ombre. Nous savons que le salut du monde dépend de nous aussi. Que la terre a besoin de n’importe lesquels d’entre ses fils. Les plus humbles. » (page 242).
Sur ce bateau, se côtoient donc des réprouvés de la France de Vichy, des immigrés de l’Est, des juifs, des apatrides ; des anonymes ou des destins illustres. Des écrivains comme André Breton et Anna Seghers, l’explorateur Claude Levi-Strauss, le communiste Victor Serge, le peintre Cubain Wilfredo Lam, la photographe allemande Germaine Krull…
« Nous disons que l’Atlantique est pour notre civilisation ce qu’était la Méditerranée pour le monde antique, une mer intérieure. » (Victor Serge, Carnets - page 23).
« Continuer à avancer de la seule manière valable qui soit : à travers les flammes. » (André Breton, Martinique, charmeuse de serpents - page 193).
Adrien Bosc dans « Capitaine » fait vivre aux lecteurs cette traversée avec moult détails du quotidien. Comment chacun essaie de vivre le mieux possible ce voyage.
« Les voyageurs ont tôt fait de comprendre le surnom du navire : Pôvre merle,….Hormis les cabines des membres de l’équipage, au nombre de quatre, les deux cent cinquante passagers découvraient stupéfiés des dortoirs aménagés au fond des deux cales. Une centaine de lits superposés construits à la va-vite par les ouvriers de la compagnie, …. C’était une cabane de bric et de broc, un enchevêtrement de couchettes de paille tassée, en seconde comme en première, d’ailleurs de classes il n’existait plus. » (pages 38-39).
« Capitaine » est à la fois un reportage et de la littérature, du documentaire et de la fiction.
C’est tout un pan de notre histoire méconnue qu’Adrien Bosc nous fait revivre. Il nous renvoie à notre propre réalité d’aujourd’hui. Les guerres, les génocides… sont toujours d’actualité. Et plus près de nous, géographiquement, le drame des migrants nous rappelle la douleur de partir, d’être considéré comme de la « viande », bonne à monnayer ou à exploiter. Ces migrants risquent, aussi, leur vie en traversant cette fois-ci la mer Méditerranée. L’ailleurs sera toujours mieux que ce que l’on quitte, même au péril de sa vie.
« Articuler historiquement le passé ne signifie pas le connaître « tel qu’il a été effectivement », mais bien plutôt devenir maître d’un souvenir tel qu’il brille à l’instant d’un péril. » (Walter Benjamin, Thèses sur la philosophie de l’histoire - page 11).
Des drames se jouent pour pouvoir accéder au bateau et avoir le tampon « VU A L’EMBARQUEMENT ». Certains n’auront pas la chance de monter à bord et de faire le voyage, comme les Espagnols, partant majoritairement pour le Mexique.
« les formalités avaient traîné en longueur, ça s’était agité en tout sens, le ton était vite monté, des cris et puis l’on avait compris : seuls les femmes, les vieux et les enfants seraient autorisés à embarquer, les hommes espagnols valides resteraient à quai. Ordre de la préfecture. Dans un souci de coopération et après la visite de Franco en février 41, un décret passé en catimini interdisait aux ressortissants espagnols adultes de sexe masculin de moins de quarante-huit ans de quitter le territoire, ainsi qu’aux émigrés « dangereux » et « possibles activistes antiallemands. » » (page 52).
Leurs destinations finales sont les Etats-Unis, l’Amérique latine ou le Mexique.
Ils vont être obligés de faire une escale en Martinique où ils apprendront ce que signifient d’être des pestiférés.
Certains auront la chance de rencontrer le couple Suzanne et Aimé Césaire luttant avec leurs armes : l’écriture. Ils rédigent et publient une revue « Tropiques » avec quelques autres.
Extrait de cette revue :
« Où que nous regardions l’ombre gagne. L’un après l’autre, les foyers s’éteignent. Le cercle d’ombre se resserre, parmi des cris d’hommes et des hurlements de fauves. Pourtant nous sommes de ceux qui disent non à l’ombre. Nous savons que le salut du monde dépend de nous aussi. Que la terre a besoin de n’importe lesquels d’entre ses fils. Les plus humbles. » (page 242).
Sur ce bateau, se côtoient donc des réprouvés de la France de Vichy, des immigrés de l’Est, des juifs, des apatrides ; des anonymes ou des destins illustres. Des écrivains comme André Breton et Anna Seghers, l’explorateur Claude Levi-Strauss, le communiste Victor Serge, le peintre Cubain Wilfredo Lam, la photographe allemande Germaine Krull…
« Nous disons que l’Atlantique est pour notre civilisation ce qu’était la Méditerranée pour le monde antique, une mer intérieure. » (Victor Serge, Carnets - page 23).
« Continuer à avancer de la seule manière valable qui soit : à travers les flammes. » (André Breton, Martinique, charmeuse de serpents - page 193).
Adrien Bosc dans « Capitaine » fait vivre aux lecteurs cette traversée avec moult détails du quotidien. Comment chacun essaie de vivre le mieux possible ce voyage.
« Les voyageurs ont tôt fait de comprendre le surnom du navire : Pôvre merle,….Hormis les cabines des membres de l’équipage, au nombre de quatre, les deux cent cinquante passagers découvraient stupéfiés des dortoirs aménagés au fond des deux cales. Une centaine de lits superposés construits à la va-vite par les ouvriers de la compagnie, …. C’était une cabane de bric et de broc, un enchevêtrement de couchettes de paille tassée, en seconde comme en première, d’ailleurs de classes il n’existait plus. » (pages 38-39).
« Capitaine » est à la fois un reportage et de la littérature, du documentaire et de la fiction.
C’est tout un pan de notre histoire méconnue qu’Adrien Bosc nous fait revivre. Il nous renvoie à notre propre réalité d’aujourd’hui. Les guerres, les génocides… sont toujours d’actualité. Et plus près de nous, géographiquement, le drame des migrants nous rappelle la douleur de partir, d’être considéré comme de la « viande », bonne à monnayer ou à exploiter. Ces migrants risquent, aussi, leur vie en traversant cette fois-ci la mer Méditerranée. L’ailleurs sera toujours mieux que ce que l’on quitte, même au péril de sa vie.
« Articuler historiquement le passé ne signifie pas le connaître « tel qu’il a été effectivement », mais bien plutôt devenir maître d’un souvenir tel qu’il brille à l’instant d’un péril. » (Walter Benjamin, Thèses sur la philosophie de l’histoire - page 11).
January 11, 2020
This book contains Adrian Bosc’s narrative of the Atlantic voyage of a boat rescuing a very diverse group of refugees out of France in 1941, during the Vichy regime. Artists, politicians, industrialists, writers, scientists, many of them Jews, were finally escaping the Nazi regime and their French proxy.
The book does a good job to describe the overall situation of how the boats came to be chartered and the difficulties to have them leave the various harbors, beginning in Marseille. The book zooms then in on certain passengers and their families, describing how they came to be on the boat.
The interesting part is that so many people from very different walks of life, cultures and academic background meet and share their daily life in this pressure-cooker environment. Some unusual friendships develop, that were sometimes decisive for a scientific or creative direction the passengers take in their life after the travel. The reader feels appalled by the poor hygiene and infrastructure on board. They were treated as prisoners on the island of Martinique. Who could, tried to press cash out of them.
We cannot help to see a parallel between these somber days of the Second World War and our own contemporary period, where poor souls fleeing their homeland for of war, political persecution or outright misery are also not always welcomed.
I do get it that Breton was a key figure and deserves a lot of attention, it is just that I developed prior to reading this book a distinct disliking of this character, so that I would have preferred a little bit less Breton.
This book reads well as an extension to having read “Villa Air Bel”, that book deals with the same tragedy and some of the refugees on the boat here took earlier refuge in that Villa near Marseille.
At the end of the book I had a surprise; seeing an unexpected relationship, between this and earlier readings. In the weekend I started to read a French translation of the “Adventures of Mr. D’Artagnan” not the book of Alexandre Dumas, but the original version of the real “Mousquetaire” from the 17th century; transformed to modern French by Edouard Glissant in the 1960ies. Curious about who this Glissant was, I had read on Wikipedia and Google a bit on his life and works. An import figure, this writer originating from Martinique. How surprising to see Glissant also come up in the context of this book!
In the same vein: I found out that a writer that was on board completed some of her masterworks in my very town, only some blocks from where I live. I was previously unaware of this writer’s name and existence and her books.
The language used in this book, as well as the ideas developed are mostly above average sophisticated and hence the book requires close attention while reading. Therefore it is not always an easy read, but I do recommend this book.
The book does a good job to describe the overall situation of how the boats came to be chartered and the difficulties to have them leave the various harbors, beginning in Marseille. The book zooms then in on certain passengers and their families, describing how they came to be on the boat.
The interesting part is that so many people from very different walks of life, cultures and academic background meet and share their daily life in this pressure-cooker environment. Some unusual friendships develop, that were sometimes decisive for a scientific or creative direction the passengers take in their life after the travel. The reader feels appalled by the poor hygiene and infrastructure on board. They were treated as prisoners on the island of Martinique. Who could, tried to press cash out of them.
We cannot help to see a parallel between these somber days of the Second World War and our own contemporary period, where poor souls fleeing their homeland for of war, political persecution or outright misery are also not always welcomed.
I do get it that Breton was a key figure and deserves a lot of attention, it is just that I developed prior to reading this book a distinct disliking of this character, so that I would have preferred a little bit less Breton.
This book reads well as an extension to having read “Villa Air Bel”, that book deals with the same tragedy and some of the refugees on the boat here took earlier refuge in that Villa near Marseille.
At the end of the book I had a surprise; seeing an unexpected relationship, between this and earlier readings. In the weekend I started to read a French translation of the “Adventures of Mr. D’Artagnan” not the book of Alexandre Dumas, but the original version of the real “Mousquetaire” from the 17th century; transformed to modern French by Edouard Glissant in the 1960ies. Curious about who this Glissant was, I had read on Wikipedia and Google a bit on his life and works. An import figure, this writer originating from Martinique. How surprising to see Glissant also come up in the context of this book!
In the same vein: I found out that a writer that was on board completed some of her masterworks in my very town, only some blocks from where I live. I was previously unaware of this writer’s name and existence and her books.
The language used in this book, as well as the ideas developed are mostly above average sophisticated and hence the book requires close attention while reading. Therefore it is not always an easy read, but I do recommend this book.
June 17, 2021
In March 1941,the Paul Lemerle, a converted cargo ship, left Marseilles for the Caribbean. On board were immigrants fleeing Vichy France, many of whom are household names today. They included writers, artists, Russian revolutionaries and a renowned anthropologist. Conditions aboard the Paul Lemerle were pretty grim. Descriptions of the voyage written at the time by the passengers still exist and from these the author recreates the journey for the reader. He then embarks on his own journey of discovery many years later as he visits many of the places that are described and adds his own creative and contemplative musings.
This is not the easiest book in the world to read as the narrative is interspersed with some fairly heavy philosophy. This is largely presented as conversations or dialogue of some sort between the passengers on board the vessel but in reality it is extracts taken from books or papers that the passengers wrote in real life. Despite finding it hard going at times, and having to read and re-read some passages to ensure that I had followed the arguments that were being presented, I really enjoyed the book. The writing style is candid and personal, almost as though the author is talking personally to the reader so that it sometimes feels as though he is committing the cardinal sin of breaking the fourth wall in a TV production. Towards the end of the book as he takes the reader with him on his own journey of discovery, revisiting many of the places that were described by the passengers on the Paul Lemerle, he adds his own interesting observations which strengthen the impact of this tragic but fascinating story.
One question that I have been asked a couple of times is “Fact or fiction?”. This is interesting because the answer is by no means straightforward. As far as I can ascertain most of the people mentioned in the book were on the ship. The geography of the trip appears to be correct and the destination of most of the individual passengers is also accurate. Even the conversations that are described seem to have happened, just not necessarily with people who were on board the ship or even in that time or place. On balance I think I would come down on the side of “factual, but with some liberal doses of poetic licence”.
I think I would have enjoyed the book more had I known more about the main characters. Hence four stars rather than five. Having said that, it is hardly the author’s fault that my ignorance got in the way slightly!
Recommended to those who enjoy a challenging, interesting and often entertaining read.
This is not the easiest book in the world to read as the narrative is interspersed with some fairly heavy philosophy. This is largely presented as conversations or dialogue of some sort between the passengers on board the vessel but in reality it is extracts taken from books or papers that the passengers wrote in real life. Despite finding it hard going at times, and having to read and re-read some passages to ensure that I had followed the arguments that were being presented, I really enjoyed the book. The writing style is candid and personal, almost as though the author is talking personally to the reader so that it sometimes feels as though he is committing the cardinal sin of breaking the fourth wall in a TV production. Towards the end of the book as he takes the reader with him on his own journey of discovery, revisiting many of the places that were described by the passengers on the Paul Lemerle, he adds his own interesting observations which strengthen the impact of this tragic but fascinating story.
One question that I have been asked a couple of times is “Fact or fiction?”. This is interesting because the answer is by no means straightforward. As far as I can ascertain most of the people mentioned in the book were on the ship. The geography of the trip appears to be correct and the destination of most of the individual passengers is also accurate. Even the conversations that are described seem to have happened, just not necessarily with people who were on board the ship or even in that time or place. On balance I think I would come down on the side of “factual, but with some liberal doses of poetic licence”.
I think I would have enjoyed the book more had I known more about the main characters. Hence four stars rather than five. Having said that, it is hardly the author’s fault that my ignorance got in the way slightly!
Recommended to those who enjoy a challenging, interesting and often entertaining read.
July 17, 2023
"We cannot know the taste of pineapple from travellers' tales", but this book manages to bring us close. An engrossing Kaleidoscopic account from multiple perspectives. Although I found the narrative to be sometimes a little bit confusing, when it jumped between perspectives, or when it mentioned obscure (French) literary references, I didn't want to disembark from this intriguing voyage of chance encounters.
March 7, 2025
a história de um barco, o capitaine paul-lemerle, que zarpou do porto de marselha em 1941 em direção a oeste, contendo refugiados da frança de vichy. entre os nomes constam andré breton, victor serge, claude lévi-strauss, wilfredo lam e anna seghers.
um romance histórico sustentado pelos escritos e diários dos próprios vultos acima mencionados, que retrata o que é ser um indesejável na europa fascista, assim como a tirania banal da burocracia e o resultante desespero e insegurança.
3,5 sólido, daqueles livros que correspondem à premissa, sem tirar nem pôr. recomendado aos apreciadores dos surrealistas, de história cultural deste período, bem como de estudos anticoloniais (de realçar as interações entre andré breton e o casal martinicano aimé e suzanne césaire).
um romance histórico sustentado pelos escritos e diários dos próprios vultos acima mencionados, que retrata o que é ser um indesejável na europa fascista, assim como a tirania banal da burocracia e o resultante desespero e insegurança.
3,5 sólido, daqueles livros que correspondem à premissa, sem tirar nem pôr. recomendado aos apreciadores dos surrealistas, de história cultural deste período, bem como de estudos anticoloniais (de realçar as interações entre andré breton e o casal martinicano aimé e suzanne césaire).
January 25, 2019
Remarquablement documenté et intelligemment écrit, forme et fond. J'apprécie beaucoup que toutes les citations soient seulement référencées à la fin du livre.
Mais autant j'ai aimé les souvenirs personnels de cette traversée incroyable, autant les discours sur l'art m'ont un peu ennuyée. J'ai failli arrêter ma lecture à la 100° page !
Mais autant j'ai aimé les souvenirs personnels de cette traversée incroyable, autant les discours sur l'art m'ont un peu ennuyée. J'ai failli arrêter ma lecture à la 100° page !
June 22, 2021
Absolutely magnificent. One of my favourite contemporary works in some time.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews