Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel and Euan Cameron

Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel and Euan Cameron
Buy Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel and Euan Cameron at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: General Fiction
Reviewer: John Lloyd
Summary: A miniature masterpiece, as a book about an elderly immigrant pulls the rug from under one with its ending.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 144	Date: March 2011
Publisher: MacLehose Press
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978-1906694999
Share on: and

From a war-ravaged country a bit like a Vietnam or a Cambodia an old man carries the fragile frame of his granddaughter aboard a refugee's ship, staring at the receding horizon all the weeks it takes to arrive at a city a bit like a Seattle or a New York. He and she are given the basics of a new life together but it's up to him, Monsieur Linh, to find friendship, which he does, accepting uncomprehendingly the chatty company of a fellow mourner called Bark.

Thus we see the wallowing drift into familiarity Linh finds. From knowing nothing of where he is, with rushes of humanity in frenzied walking patterns or scurrying cars overwhelming him, the two old men join on a street bench, and form new memories for each other in exploring the city in genteel ease. But is it an ease that can last?

This is a short, but not a small, book about friendships. The unlikely relationship is formed from an instant misunderstanding, but still hearts are opened, in the characters and the reader, as the odd couple sustains itself, through an inability to talk to each other, and despite - or perhaps because of - a connection from the past.

But I also have to declare this is a book about its ending. Every bit of blurb mentions it, as its writer finds it leaps out from the rest and cannot be suppressed. And my response is that that is a correct reaction. Despite the slow, easy qualities of the majority of this book, as impressive as they are, the finale turns it from being a somewhat mild look at aged immigrant life - Mitch Albom meets Lloyd Jones - into something that will definitely give out a full-bodied response.

It's clearly a sign of a great author, then. You can forgive the simplicity of what has gone before, ignore the seeming lull at the start of act three, and give this the only response possible - five stars. This serves as a great advert for the shorter book, with Claudel in your company for just two hours, but in control of memories and emotions to far outlast the reading time. The result is an intricate, deceptive masterpiece.

I have also raved over the author's previous novel, Brodeck's Report. An immigrant who can reach back home, and not rely on new friendships, can be found in The Madonnas of Leningrad by Debra Dean.

Please share on: Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

You can read more book reviews or buy Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel and Euan Cameron at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy Monsieur Linh and His Child by Philippe Claudel and Euan Cameron at Amazon.com.

Comments

Like to comment on this review?

Just send us an email and we'll put the best up on the site.