Very good people, Alexandre Jardin

"As my father gradually falls asleep against me, I speak to him one last time:
Later, you won't be able to live with the Jardin secret. It will kill you...
You'll write a book, Le nain jaune, to hide it.
At the same age as you, I'll write one, Des gens très bien, to expose it.
And I'll live the last part of your life... Mine.
Sleep, my little daddy, sleep...

This book could have been called "no more laughing."
It's the logbook of my slow lucidity."

A. J.

This is a completely unexpected book in the work of the author of Fanfan and Le Roman des Jardin. For the first time, in fact, a "Jardin" decides to roll back the legends that, until then and with his own complicity, have embellished his family's history, and to examine the dark side of the one called "le Nain Jaune," meaning his grandfather, Jean Jardin.
Let us remember that he was Pierre Laval's chief of staff from May 1942 to October 1943; it goes without saying that during the Vel d'Hiv round-up – in mid-July 1942 – the Nain Jaune was truly at the heart of the collaborationist power.
In Des gens très bien, Alexandre Jardin recounts his intimate odyssey from the age of seventeen, when he began to understand what his grandfather's chilling responsibilities meant, kept secret by his family – before questioning the paths that lead a good person to participate in horror; and to accept it without ever disowning himself.
Behind Alexandre's laughter, there was this terrible secret, strangely displayed by his father Pascal so that it would not be seen.
This journey among these "good people" involves memories, difficult scenes: it is a serious confession.