Pierre et Jean

Pierre et Jean is brilliant.  The only other work I've read of Guy de Maupassant is Bel Ami and I remember that being good.  Not blow your socks off amazing, but good nonetheless.  I'm not sure if Pierre et Jean just struck a chord with me, reading it as I was going to visit my family.  But I loved it.  It's simple and intriguing and, even after six hours on a coach, gripping.

The book tells the story of two brothers, Pierre and Jean.  When the younger, Jean, is named as the sole beneficiary to a family friend's fortune, Pierre becomes jealous.  This soon leads to suspicions about Jean's true paternity and a little bit of a mental breakdown over his mother's (perceived) loss of honour.  That's pretty much it.  It's a very short story- focusing more on Pierre's various obsessions with success, his brother's good luck and his mother's honour- rather than a complicated plot.  And the story works well for it, much more would have felt unnecessary. 

From the beginning, Pierre is jealous of Jean.  It is not just linked to the money.  Pierre sees his younger brother as a better specimen: more driven, more handsome, loved better.  The family is held together by the fact that neither brother has actually managed to fly the nest.  Pierre’s jealous is benign.  When the money comes into play, Jean scoops up a flat that Pierre has had his eye on.  He is directly stopping Pierre's happiness and so Pierre allows himself to listen to the idle gossip surrounding his mother and the unusualness of his brother's inheritance.  In his view, he is driven to it.

My favourite thing about the novel is its ending.  Pierre confronts Jean with his suspicions about their mother and she overhears the brothers talking.  Instead of confirming or denying it on the spot, she waits for Pierre to leave before revealing the truth to Jean. While she says that this is because she now lives in fear of Pierre, it almost vindicates his jealousy.  He is not the son who is trusted with the truth.  In fact, he is never told it.

Pierre et Jean is good in a way that is a bit clichéd now.  The brothers are polar opposites- Pierre dark haired, impetuous and indecisive about his life; Jean is fair, rational and kind.  Jean has a plan.  But the book feels as though it were written before these things became clichés.  In de Maupassant's hands they feel as though they are natural character traits first, and foreshadowing points second.  Having said that, I was kind of hoping that it would have been the other way around- that Pierre would have been the one to come into a great fortune and for Jean to have to deal with not being the golden boy all of a sudden.  I think there could have been more emotional complexity in that story and it's one I'd like to have read.

I am now onto (okay have already finished) Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin.   After that there are no more coach books.