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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
Great Art & Atmosphere, Contrived Story, 31 May 2006
In 1942, French writer Leo Malet began his long-running "Nestor Burma" series of crime novels with "120, Rue de la Gare." Renowned French illustrator Jacques Tardi adapted that book (and four others which have yet to appear in English) to his own graphic style, and the result is this fairly engaging crime graphic novel set during the German occupation of France during World War II. The book opens in late 1940, with ace pipe-smoking Parisian private eye Burma in a German P.O.W. camp, interned with all the other French soldiers waiting to be processed and demobilized. Among those he encounters in camp are a shifty burglar, a doctor he once helped out, and a haunted-looking amnesiac. Just before dying in the camp infirmary, the amnesiac cries out a mysterious address and the name "Helené" in Burma's presence. Several days later, Burma and a trainload of other repatriated soldiers are idling at the train station in Lyons, en route to Paris. From the train, Burma spots his old partner Bob on the platform and calls out to him. Bob runs toward Burma, yells out the same mysterious address as the amnesiac, and is gunned down by an unknown assailant before he says any more.
Burma leaps from the moving train and immediately begins his investigation into the puzzle. Where is the address? Who is Helené? Why was Bob in Lyons? Who was the amnesiac? What was his connection to Bob? And who was the beautiful woman at the train station? Fortunately, Burma has a journalist pal in Lyons, and through a network of friends of friends, starts digging -- all against the backdrop of the German occupation. The cast of characters is classic crime stuff, rumpled newspaper hacks looking for a scoop, thin-lipped disapproving women, fat-cat lawyers, befuddled cops, a mysterious beauty. The plot is classically labyrinthine, with all kinds of twists and turns, culminating in a classic gathering of everyone in one room to unmask the killer scene. While it all reads pretty well, if one stands back from it all at the very end, the story starts to rapidly lose its sheen. As is the case with many first crime novels, once untangled, you realize it depends on far too many wild coincidences to be remotely plausible.
Tardi's detailed black and white style is well suited to the material and period. One can see the influence of Hergé, a lot of research has gone into the details which fill out the backgrounds, especially exterior architecture and the "set dressing." Especially fascinating are all the handbills, posters, and graffiti relating to the occupation that plaster the walls Burma strolls by. Like a lot of European artists, his faces tend to be a little more exaggerated and grotesque in some cases than one might wish, but this is a minor quibble. The paneling is simple and straight-forward, however the frames tend to be somewhat overwhelmed by the text. Adapted from a novel, this is a much wordier work than most graphic novels, and it would have been nice had Tardi shrunk the balloons a little and made the copy a little smaller so the art could breathe. The translators have done an excellent job with the tough-guy dialogue, and the background of the occupation (rationing, curfews, blackouts, British bombers, etc.) lend depth to what is essentially a story of greed.
Note: To date, only nine of the 30+ Nestor Burma novels have been translated into English, and those are all out of print. The French titles of the other four Malet works adapted by Tardi are: "Brouillard Au Pont De Tolbiac", "Une gueule de bois en plomb", "M'as-tu vu en cadavre?", and "Casse-pipe à la nation."
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