Jean Mauriac, son of the famous author of Thérèse Desqueyroux, became early, after the war, a journalist to the Agency France-Presse. It is as such that he followed closely during twenty six years, from 1944 till 1970, the career(quarry) of the
general de Gaulle. The testimony that it offers us in this
work is fascinating. His descriptions of the liberation of Paris, the birth of the RPF, the return of the General in the power, its journeys in Algeria, in Oceania, but also of the drama of 1968 when, on May 29th, at the edge of the abyss, de Gaulle leaves incognito to Baden-Baden; the narrative of the recovery before the final fall, the death and the burial to Colombey in grand one simplicity (" no sermon, no flowers, no crowns, no sacred texts stuttered by the children of the family, no official representative ")...
We read all this without releasing(leaving) the
book because, besides, Jean Mauriac has no complicity with the set language, and does not dread the most delicate questions - for example on the homosexuality supposed by his father.
This work will be not only a nostalgic delight for the admirers of the General. To the amateurs of
history it will be a precious source of knowledge on one of the big statesmen of the most decided to protect his private life. This book translates a glance of nearness which helps us to understand better the haughty
personality of the " republican monarch " and his feelings " under the shell ".
Jean Mauriac has nothing of a thurifier incapable of the slightest criticism (so he is not afraid of speaking about the "failure" of the General in May, 1968), but, contrary to those who have never had the suspicion of the size(greatness), he gives evidence of the reality through a personality except.
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