The Lasting Popularity of Joseph Joffo’s A BAG OF MARBLES

• In Event: Intergenerational Trauma in the Modern Francophone world

Abstract

Since it first appeared in print in 1973, Joseph Joffo’s memoir A BAG OF MARBLES (Un Sac de Billes) has been translated into 18 languages, has twice been turned into film (most recently in 2017), and is also a graphic novel. In addition, according to the Washington Post, the book is currently used by schools in France to teach about the Shoah.

And why THIS story? Hundreds of stories of the victims have been told in France alone. What has given this particular work the staying power of nearly 50 years?

Joffo was not a professional writer, but a hairdresser. And he was a very successful hairdresser, with politicians and actors among his clientele. In the early 1970s he began to write down the story of how he and his older brother Maurice began a trek by themselves to escape from Nazi-occupied Paris. He did this basically for his family, for his three children, with no thought of publication. He wrote, ‘As I look at my sleeping son, I can only wish one thing: that he may never experience the kind of hours that I knew in those years.’ This was at a time when the Shoah was hardly discussed except by a few. It was also understood by many - but again, not mentioned officially - that there was widespread collaboration with the Nazis among the French. It would not be for another 20 years that the French government, as represented by Chirac, admitted to its collaborationist past. People who knew Joffo convinced him to try and publish his story. Whether Chirac was one of those is unknown, but Chirac was a client of Joffo’s. One would think that this book would have had no trouble getting into print, but it did. It was rejected several times, and finally published by a small house.

At first seemingly benign occupiers, the Nazis began to hunt and deport French Jews. When Joseph was 11 and Maurice 13, their father gave each some money and a backpack and instructions to go south to join their much older brothers in Vichy France. The boys make the trip and return to a free Paris. But of course they are changed forever. So this is a classic coming-of-age saga in addition to being a tale of the Shoah. But again, this story is different and its audience is not exclusively Jewish - not with over 20 million copies bought.

Why has this story been popular? It is told in first person from the point of view of a child, is full of action, and lacks philosophical discourse. It is an ‘easy read’ but it is not an easy story to fathom. It can be appreciated on different levels. For some, it is an adventure story; for others, a discussion of the ethics of deliberately teaching children to lie. I intend to analyze the characteristics of the story and compare its various adaptations, and account for its lasting influence.

Author

• Jane S. Gabin