Stories like this new title by Sorj Chalandon are rare. Novels that stir, which raise a whole range of emotions, from anger to revolt, and which make you want to rebel against all forms of injustice of which human beings have shown themselves capable in the past.
The French writer was inspired by historical events that occurred in the juvenile penal colony of Belle-Île-en-Mer, off the coast of Brittany. In 1927, Jules Bonneau was 13 years old when he was sent to this establishment where “badly born” children landed, whom the State did not know what to do with, abandoned by his mother, then by his father and his grandparents. Some already described the place as a penal colony since the “settlers” were forced to work there, poorly fed, locked in chicken cages and savagely beaten by merciless supervisors who had fought in the Great War.
Seven years later, the colony was the scene of an unprecedented riot. The children revolt in an outburst of violence and manage to escape the walls of their prison. Jules Bonneau is one of them. A reward is then offered to the inhabitants of the island to find the escapees and bring them back to the colony – dead or alive –, a 20-franc coin, almost nothing, but which still triggers a “child hunt » unrestrained, cruel and inhuman, and which inspired his famous poem to Jacques Prévert, passing through Belle-Île at the time of the uprising.
Everyone will be found, except Jules. But how do you escape when you’re stuck on an island? And can we really rebuild ourselves when we have only known beatings, bullying, insults and humiliation?
All the strength of the story comes from the fact that it is the teenager who tells his story. Sorj Chalandon’s writing is a cry of rage, fiery, explosive, like all the violence and rejection that Jules Bonneau has continued to suffer since his childhood.
The Enraged is also a fascinating portrait of an era. We are in the heart of the 1930s, Europe is in turmoil. From the continent come echoes of what will trigger a new world conflict. On the island itself, frictions arise between communists and nationalists. The revolt of these children is in fact only the prelude to the tidal wave that will devastate a large part of the world. Yes, it’s a brutal story, strikingly harsh, which can be read with your nerves on edge. But it is also the kind of novel that is essential when you want to look History in the face.
