So what's the really big whoop? "Les Bienveillantes" is clunkily written -- it often feels as if Littell is just regurgitating the enormous amount of research he obviously did -- and paradoxically uninvolving, considering its topic. Narrat…

Ten years ago, having to explain to an international audience who Papon was, the formula which came spontaneously to my mind was "anti-Schindler." Steven Spielberg's film, "Schindler's List," had worldwide repercussions. Its hero, a German…

When Irène Némirovsky's Suite Française was published in English last year, something was left out. Just a few lines omitted from the introduction to the French edition that had appeared two years previously. Nothing to diminish the remark…

And he was a busy man, in charge of traffic, petrol rationing, requisitions and Jewish questions. These were two: status (identity, parentage, whether baptised) and Aryanisation (transfer of their property to non-Jews). Mr Papon had to arr…

To judge by that alone, Papon seemed to have been a willing agent of state-sponsored anti-Semitism during World War II.Yet the evidence pointed towards a more nuanced judgement. Papon appeared not to have been motivated by anti-Semitism, b…

Tall and self-assured, Mr. Papon looked the model French elite civil servant, and for 50 years he seemed to be one, overcoming the taint of collaboration after the war to be taken under the wing of the hero of the Resistance, Charles de Ga…

A crisis of confidence caused by corruption scandals, French support of dictatorial regimes and a lack of political direction is threatening Paris's special relationship with the continent. It is also being squeezed out by emerging economi…

'There is no doubt that Royal is in difficulty,' Emmanuel Riviere of pollsters TNS Sofres told The Observer. 'Her problems may be temporary, but that does not mean they are not serious. The gap between her and Sarkozy continues to grow.' I…

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/01/03/bruguiere/index.html When Bruguiﾃｨre discovered in late January 1992 that officials in the government of Francois Mitterrand had secretly given the green light for a notorious terrorist le…