Jacques Chessex (1934–2009)

Cette éternelle odeur m’a rappelé le Moine de Mattew Gregory Lewis et sa descente aux enfers entre sainteté et luxure, entre le désir de la pureté et celui des corps.

Jules-Henri sent ! Et, accompagné de l’abbé Noiret il se questionne sur l’odeur des saints tout en étant inexorablement attiré par les effluves de Maria Elena.

Guidé par son flair, Dieu et son désir, Jules-Henri tisse une fable à la morale incertaine et aux arguments dont la mauvaise foi ne trompent que lui… pour son plaisir… (meer)

En 1903, en Ropraz, en el Haut-Jorat valdense, la hija del juez de paz muere a los veinte años de una meningitis. Una mañana encuentran levantada la tapa del ataúd, profanado el cuerpo de la virginal Rosa y sus miembros parcialmente devorados. Horror. Resurgen las supersticiones, la obsesión por el vampirismo, cada quien espía a los demás en lo más crudo del invierno. Más tarde se cometen otras dos violaciones en Carrouge y en Ferlens. Después de eso hay que encontrar un culpable. Lo será el tal Favez, un mozo de labranza. Condenado, encarcelado, sometido a estudio psiquiátrico, en 1915 se pierde su rastro. A partir de un hecho real, Jacques Chessex escribe el estremecedor relato de la fascinación asesina. ¿Quién mejor que él para narrar la "mugre primitiva", la soledad, los fantasmas de los notables, la mala conciencia de una época?… (meer)

"In spring, when this story begins, all around is lovely, with an almost supernatural intensity that contrasts with the heinous events in the town....But evil is astir. A powerful poison is seeping in."

This is a fictionalized account of a horrific crime that took place in 1942 during World War II in a small village in neutral Switzerland. Although Switzerland was neutral, there were a lot of Nazis and Nazi sympathizers in the population. A group of these Nazis in a small farming community lured a Jewish cattle merchant to an empty stable and brutally murdered him, dismembered him, and dumped him in a lake. The local Nazi cell members believed they would be soundly rewarded by the Nazis in Germany for doing this deed.
The author was a child in the village at the time this crime occurred, and in fact went to school with the children of some of the perpetrators.
I found this to be written in an unemotional, nonsensational manner of telling that almost did not seem to fit with the horror of the events described. But perhaps that was the intent. At the time it was published, the book generated some controversy in Switzerland about what exactly Switzerland's role in World War II was.

3 stars… (meer)