We start in Beirut, where the Pelletier family moved after World War II, and where paterfamilias Louis has established a successful soap-making business. He has three sons and a daughter, now adults starting to make their way in the wide world. The eldest, Jean, is a complete failure at his father’s business, and his shrewish wife, Genevieve, is determined that they should be wealthy and respected. Off they go to France, hoping that somehow Jean can become a success in a different environment. François, the second son, has moved to Paris, ostensibly to enter the prestigious École Normale Supérieure, but actually to try to become a journalist. Étienne, secretly gay, takes a job in Saigon with France’s foreign exchange bureau, so that he can try to find his lover, a soldier who may be missing in action after a military mission against the Vietnamese communist forces. The youngest, Hélène still lives at home, bored, and allowing herself to enter into a physically abusive sexual affair with an older man.

This is a long book, and I stopped reading often and had to force myself to pick it up again. The first half of the book is nothing but unlikeable characters doing stupid, tawdry, and sometimes horrid things. While I read many history books with lots of violence and senseless cruelty, It’s not often I enjoy fiction with those elements, though I do enjoy some noir crime novels. This novel, particularly the first half, is filled with degrading and depressing cruelty of various kinds. The second half is an improvement, not because the tone changes or the people become more likable, but because the four young Pelletiers’ stories develop, and connections between them are made, as well as new information given about the senior Pelletiers that adds to the plot and characters.

Though the second half of the book is much better than the first half, I never enjoyed this read. It’s well written and the historical aspects are impressive, but this just wasn’t for me. Many other readers will find it more to their taste.