Ali Karim was a Board Member of Bouchercon [The World Crime & Mystery Convention] and co-chaired programming for Bouchercon Raleigh, North Carolina in 2015. He is Assistant Editor of Shots eZine, British correspondent for The Rap Sheet and writes and reviews for many US magazines & Ezines.
The occupation of Paris by the Nazis during WW2 is retold through the eyes and ears of Frank Meier, the legendary barman of the Petit Bar, in the Paris Ritz Hotel. Philippe Collin’s debut novel is akin to one of Meier’s cocktails, for it infuses deeply researched historical facts, with fictionally imagined flourishes that render the narrative addictive - but one with a colourfully dark, dark sting in its long tail.
Ernest Hemingway opens this book “When I dream of afterlife in heaven, the action always takes place in the Paris Ritz”.
Written with the urgency of present-tense and interspersed with imagined diary entries, the short chapters imaginatively detail the life of the enigma that is “Frank Meier”. The author provides a usefully concise Dramatis Personae, which gives a thumbnail sketch of the faces in the crowd.
There is opening context to Frank Meier, with his humble childhood, his working class Austrian-Jewish parents and then his fleeing Europe for New York by ship [via Antwerp]. Meier’s father never accepted his Jewish faith, and despite his wife’s protestations, refused to have baby Frank Meier circumcised.
While in New York, Meier becomes trained into the life of tending bar and the art of mixing cocktails.
On his return to Europe, he finds employment as a barman at the Brunswick in Paris, enjoying the American clientele. With the advent of World War One, Frank enlists and fights for France under the command of the legendary Marechal Petain. Returning to Paris after the hostilities were over, Frank’s recent [and short-lived marriage] to Maria Hutting in 1921, results in a son, Jean-Jacques as well as a divorce. This is all preamble to the main story of Frank Meier; now in his fifties and head barman at the Ritz’s exclusive Petit Bar. He is joined by his former wartime comrade Georges Scheuer and his apprentice Luciano looking after the exclusive clientele of artists, actors, writers and intellectuals such as F Scott [and Zelda] Fitzgerald, Sacha Guitry, Arletty as well as socialites such as Coco Channel and Barbara Hutton [heiress to the American Woolworth empire].
Things change as the German Army advance into France.
Frank Meier’s complex nature runs in parallel to the complexities of life within an exclusive Hotel caught in the centre of an occupied city. Frank and the fellow staff of the Ritz find themselves surrounded by hostile German invaders, as well as infiltrated by opportunistic indigenous French, trying to adapt to life in the Vichy regime.
The management of the hotel remains with Marie-Louise Ritz, referred to as ‘The Widow’ [of Cesar Ritz] at the helm. She controls the hotel with an iron hand. The management from Claude Auzello and his American wife, the silent-screen actress Blanche [who was née Rubenstein] are soon superseded by interim manager Hans Elmiger and his deputy, Monsieur Suss in order to appease the German overlords.
Soon the Petit Bar has an uncomfortable mix of German officers from the Wehrmacht, opportunistic French business people, political figures [from France as well as Germany], prostitutes, art-dealers as well as intellectuals, artisans and aristocracy – making for an awkward group to be managed at the Cocktail Bar by Frank Meier, Georges and Luciano – under the watchful eye of The Widow.
Collin’s novel details the intricacies of life at that time, working in a luxury hotel during World War Two, where the high ranking officers of the Wehrmacht used it as their living quarters, and their social centre. There is illegal gambling, ‘dead-letter drops’ at the bar, and drug taking with the opium addicted Hermann Goring requiring frequent hot baths to alleviate the pains of morphine withdrawal. Parisian Jews try to flee the horrors of Nazism [and evade French collaborators] with forged documents. There are plots against Hitler, and trust becomes a rare commodity, where gossip can land you in a gestapo torture chamber.
“Eavesdropping without appearing to be listening is another vital trait among the world’s greatest bartenders” explains the author as Frank Meier finds himself swimming in dangerous waters. All the while, war rages in Europe, while Blanche Auzzello [the Jewish wife of the Manager Claude] says -
“Do you know something, Frank? I’ve always felt safe inside your bar, no matter the chaos of the world outside. I think the other guests do too. It is part of what makes it feel so magical.”
When the dangers of being Jewish becoming tangible, Frank Meier’s anxiety heightens as his estranged son Jean-Jacques and his niece Pauline arrive in Paris. The Barman befriends Fersen, a Scandinavian diplomat who can source exit documents for fleeing Jews, for a price.
“Frank’s knowledge of life doesn’t come from [reading] books, but he has learned one thing from crime novels – going on the run is expensive.”
At the conclusion, as the Germans fled Paris while the Allies advanced into the Ritz - I sat in silence, turning the pages of the Appendix with its photos and notes about what happened to the people who populated the story. Especially haunting were the photos of Claude Auzello and his wife Blanche Auzello [née Rubenstein] - may they both rest in peace.
Bravo Phillipe Collin – “tu es le meilleur”
Editor’s Notes:
Translator: Frank Wynne
As this book was one of the most interesting [and thought provoking] narratives I’ve read this year, I must pass my thanks to Jeff Peirce of The Rap Sheet for pointing it out to me, and to Alison Barrow, Eleni Lawrence / Sandra Taylor and especially publisher Selina Walker of PenguinRandomHouse’s literary imprint Doubleday / Transworld London.
