MAQUISARD

A profile of a Maquis brigade which was about to be disrupted when news of the von Rundstedt winter offensive came through -- of men who had become restless, bitter, uncontrolled, -- unfit for the conventional world after years of living on the ground -- and afraid to return to it, of lives subjected to a cause and a group and warped by the habit of danger. And in particular it is the story of Jean Ruyader, whose wife-Anne Marie, had been killed by the Gestapo and who drank to forget it, whose four children he'd hoped to see at Christmas for the first time in four years when Christmas leaves were cancelled. Still ridden by the death of Anne Marie, but getting partial release from it for the first time when he meets Marthe, the unexpected arrival of his children, escorted by an American attached to the Brigade -- finally dispels the memory of Anne Marie's death and he looks forward to a home with Marthe and his children. A nice job, with much that is touching and appealing, though the foreign derivate is apt to predicate against its popularity.