Once Upon a Time in France

July 15, 2019
The true story of Joseph Joanovici, an illiterate Romanian Jewish refugee turned millionaire who collaborated with the Nazis, is given a rollicking cinematic treatment in this graphic novel from Nury (The Death of Stalin). Continuing his focus on unusual corners of history, Nury winds everything from the French Resistance to post-Dreyfuss anti-Semitism and the ethics of war profiteering into this busy and freely fictionalized narrative. First seen as a child hiding from a Cossack pogrom in 1905, Joanovici later appears in 1947 Paris, being chased by domestic intelligence. The time-hopping narrative flickers back to the ’30s, when Joanovici is a hustling wheeler-dealer making his fortune as a scrap-metal magnate; then to the middle of the war, when he does business with the Nazis in order to survive. Joanovici also works with the Resistance and saves Jews from the camps. But in a cruel twist, after the war he is reviled as a collaborator and hunted by an obsessed judge. The polished, noirish art provides a high dramatic sheen, but Nury’s overly knotted plotting requires too much untangling. His critique of postwar hypocrisy is dulled by a flat characterization of Joanovici, whose bravery comes across as mere stubbornness. Despite a somewhat shallow take on motivations, Nury vividly illustrates how wartime leaves both victims and victimizers with dirty hands.

Starred review from August 1, 2019

Joseph Joanovici (1905-65) immigrates to France from Romania in the 1920s and seizes control of his wife's uncle's scrap-metal business. Joanovici's cunning and ambition help him become one of the richest men in Europe in the years leading up to Germany's occupation of France, whereupon Joanovici eagerly agrees to collaborate with the Nazis in order to keep his family safe. He eventually amasses a vast fortune that he uses to fund the French Resistance and connections and influence that he exploits to liberate 150 citizens seized by the Gestapo, as well as to silence anyone who threatens to reveal that he's secretly working for both sides. At the end of the war, Joanovici is proclaimed a hero by the French government and a traitor by those unwilling to accept the human cost of his actions. VERDICT Reminiscent of the best novels of John Le Carr�, but based on true events, this is an absolutely riveting thriller that asks difficult questions about good and evil and whether actions taken in the heat of battle can be fairly adjudicated in peacetime. It's easy to see why this work has already won the coveted Angoul�me Award and sold over one million copies internationally. [an editor's pick, see "Fall Fireworks," p. 23.]

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 15, 2019
Writer Nury (Atar Gull, 2019, etc.), illustrator Vall�e (Katanga, 2019, etc.) and translator Hahnenberger (The Jungle, 2019, etc.) deliver a twisty historical-epic crime saga that follows a Jewish scrap-metal salesman's relentless dedication to staying alive--and getting ahead--before, during, and after the Nazi occupation of France. As a child, Joseph Joanovici meets his future wife, Eva, as they hide out from a czarist pogrom in 1905 Romania. They eventually immigrate to Clichy, France, to stay with Eva's uncle, and Joseph demonstrates an uncanny skill in sorting metal, proving himself valuable in the uncle's scrap-metal shop. Though illiterate, the unconventionally ingenious Joseph devises a crude bookkeeping system that allows him to manage the shop's finances--and skim off the top to support his growing family. The extra cash enables Joseph to turn a sticky predicament for his uncle into a massive business opportunity for himself, and this ability to turn danger to his advantage raises Joseph's fortunes and reputation, bringing stability to his family even as the Nazis come to power, with reluctant--if profitable--material support from the Jewish ironmonger. The consummate opportunist, Joseph plays all sides, soon finding himself in league with Nazis, criminals, police, politicians, gamblers, businessmen, and the French Resistance, each move and alliance calculated to keep him and his loved ones alive even if it costs his soul and alienates those he protects. A vicious personal attack against an investigator earns Joseph an enemy who lingers long after the war. Nury's story is gripping, brutal, and morally complex, dramatizing the fleeting nature of power. The first chapter spills out a jumbled chronology, presenting this complicated man as an overturned jigsaw puzzle, and the pages that follow fill in the blanks and tighten like a noose. Vall�e's art has the cartoonish realism and cinematic verve of Steve Dillon's. Thrilling, haunting, superb.

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