Gorgeous East: A Novel

By Robert Girardi
St. Martin’s Press, $24.99, 334 pages

Long thought to be a thing of the past, the French Foreign Legion comes alive and current in this new novel by Robert Girardi. Gorgeous East, on the surface, is the story of the Legion’s efforts to save its soldiers taken as hostages by the people of the non-self-governing territory of the Western Sahara — a group of beheading fanatics which brings with them the terror of stinging bee colonies. But as this reviewer finds out, this story is really about the soldiers trying to save themselves from the Foreign Legion itself. True, the Legion started as an escape outlet, returning to them identities they have lost. But with the promise of a better future, each soldier feels the need to invest more of himself … to the detriment of actually experiencing the present that’s in front of him.

“A mysterious affliction called le cafard comes upon the Legion in .. remote outposts and mountain forts .. It is a spiritual malady, halfway between ennui and suicide… It is a kind of madness that descends out of the hot, white African sky and has extracted its toll of Legionnaires over the years, with a mortality rate nearly twice that of syphilis or the battlefield.”

Unpredictable and volatile, the plot is a real page-turner. The characterization is superb, with each of the major and minor characters given distinct memorable qualities. Best of all, the locations are effectively rendered in words that they become sensory, mentally and emotionally indelible. After reading this work, you might find yourself researching about the French Legion and its work.

Reviewed by D. Harms