Word: cats
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...CAT RETURNS with no news of Antoine. He has grown more cynical. All around him, he sees the self-serving, the spineless--those who supported the Occupation in hope of getting extra butter rations, who are now covering up their guilt as hastily as they cover up the traces of the lost deportees. Maspero examines how people compromise their principles during a crisis. He invites the reader to consider questions of personal ethics, when the safety of the individual is at stake...
Everyone hushes up Cat's questions and hides the grim truth about his family with cursory words of reassurance. Laconic about his feelings, Cat has come to expect the worst. The kittenish, playful child has become the Cat that Walks by Himself...
...particularly well-conceived episode, Cat also learns to play the hypocritical game. On the first day back at school, the teacher tells the students to write a paper about "how I spent my summer." Cat knows the formula for this kind of banal composition, and he dashes off a list of clichees--swimming, sunning, singing campfire songs...
...teacher calls him an imbecile. How could he forget that this summer was different from all the others--the glorious summer of the Liberation? The next time he writes the essay, Cat knows what kind of drivel to spill out: the joy of a good boy who sees the revival of the City of Light, who rejoices at the sight of the Eiffel Tower rising into the sky, the Arc de Triomphe hung with streamers. What with a finishing touch of a quote from Hugo, Cat gets the highest mark in the class...
PERHAPS THE BEST parts of the novel are its action scenes. His style deft and spare, Maspero tells how Cat and Antoine try to steal food stamps one rainy night. Cat drops the stamps in the mud just as the brothers notice that lanterns are approaching, swinging ominously through the dark...