Papillon

Rating:
Summary: It is too good to miss!
Review: Hi, I owned the copy of this book for several years and I had read it 3 times. He will forever be an example and a teacher to me. To meet this great man would be a wonderful gift. Though he is no angel and life has brought out the ugliest of all of him, he remains a powerful influence. If he can be so strong in such situations (i.e. watching his best friend devoured by unforgiving sharks,withstanding solitary for two years in the most creative ways, the list goes on...for 13 years!) then I can survive anything this existence throws my way. I've met my Jesus through this book. I hope to read it again one day so as to have a greater appreciation of it, perhaps after i've been through some of my own horrors. I'll definitely see the movie. I've already passed the book on to a lucky person, despite that I'd love to keep it. Looking for adventure, romance, lust, utter suspense, even amusement (he's got a great sense of humour through it all)? HEAR IT!!!!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: GREAT READ EVEN IF IT'S PURE FICTION
Review: I don't care if it's true or not, it's still a great story. This book is a real page turner. Though rumors persist that Charriere made PAPILLON up, there are enough nuggets of truth to make you think otherwise. I had a little trouble with Papi's consistent nobility throughout. Charriere leads you to believe he was a gentleman throughout. Kind of hard to believe. Also, he's a little sketchy on his conviction for murder. That leads me to believe he probably commited the crime for which he was convicted. I would agree that the French system of justice was pretty harsh back in the 1930's, but I'm sure Charriere exaggerated "a little" here and there.

But don't get me wrong. This was an amazing read. There is much more to the story than the movie. Truly great book.

Rating:
Summary: "I don't belong here - I'm only visiting"
Review: When Henri Charriere finds himself sent to a French prison colony for a crime he did not commit, he makes up his mind to go on a "cavale," literally to beat it and escape the custody of his captors. Like the butterfly (or in French "Papillon") which Charriere has tattooed to his chest, he will live his life in freedom or not at all. When a doctor questions him about his repeated escape attempts, Papillon's reply is matter-of-fact: "I don't belong here - I'm only visiting."

"Papillon" takes a while to get started, and Charriere's elusive and terse tone keeps one from feeling too close to the narrator. He tells you he didn't kill the man the police claim he did, but credits himself for not being a stool pigeon by telling them who did. So he's not exactly Dreyfus here, though he pretends otherwise at times. He mentions a wife and child in the outset almost as afterthoughts, then scarcely refers to them again. No false modesty for this guy - he runs the roost in every clink he is assigned, dispensing wisdom to prisoner and warden alike. No physical challenge is too much for him to overcome, no fellow "mec" too much for him to handle.

Let's put it this way: If Charriere is selling bridges, I ain't buying. But if this is more fiction than fact, "Papillon" still makes for one amazing novel. With minimal pretense at craft, Charriere crafts a white-knuckle, plain-spoken suspense tale that finds our hero in every imaginable predicament - and some not at all imaginable - as he makes attempt after attempt to escape the hell on earth that is French Guiana, the three Iles du Salut (literally "Isles of Salvation"), and ultimately Devil's Island. Taking you from the lush, mosquito-choked jungles of the Caribbean coastline to a solitary confinement where Papillon stays sane by imagining himself in childhood haunts, this is about as picturesque a ride as you can have sitting in your comfy chair.

A sense of life abounds in this book. Charriere holds court on such things as the proper way to sleep in a hammock, how one secretes money on one's "person," how the sharks knew when a corpse was about to be dumped in the sea, the strange tales prisoners tell, how one fishes for mullet on Devil's Island, etc. How much of this is on the level is tough to tell, but it fills the mind with a sense of a world lived in, and in one of the world's most obscure corners at that.

Whatever else, one statement Charriere makes is no doubt true: He is a spellbinding storyteller. He has a sense of the tragic and the funny and never lets the storyline sag. He also throws in nice little asides that keep the reader engaged. At one point, when he is thrown in solitary, Charriere takes a break from relating his squalor to offer this merry assurance: "The movie could not stop there; it must go on. It will go on, mecs! Just give me time to get back my strength and you'll have some new episodes, never fear!"

What makes "Papillon" especially readable and gripping is how Charriere comes into contact with the best and worst in people, sometimes the same people. The most seemingly depraved people can turn out to be not all bad; finding your hermit-like host keeps dead bodies in a pit outside his home is not necessarily proof he is out to do the same to you. He also has an intriguing religious sensibility, which yo-yos between antagonistic disbelief to a sense of profound grace. "Where there's life, there's hope" is an oft-repeated maxim in the book, and they are not hollow words for Papillon, whatever his state. Despair is unknown to him, and he's heartening to read for that alone.

I'd love to know how much of this tale is true. Apparently, there is a French-language book that analyzes the story of "Papillon" from a historical context, and the History Channel in the United States did a documentary you can order online. The little I've seen indicates some holes in the number of escape attempts Charriere made. But he was a prisoner, and then he was free; he wrote a book that, if just 10% true, would be enough to fill out four or five adventuresome lives; and his legacy is one people still passionately relate to more than 30 years after his death. I can't give this book five stars only because of this trust factor, but rest assured "Papillon" is worth your time, and you will be happy you read it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Books I have ever Read
Review: Papillon is a work of unparalleled brilliance. Charriere's description of his incarceration in the French penal colony in French Guyana is both riveting and haunting. For a man as uneducated as he claims, Charriere reveals himself as one of the 20th century's greatest writers, succeeding in use of suspense, allegory and poetic style.

Charriere builds a cohesive story, from the beginning in a rigged French court, through the trip to Cayenne, various cavales, and finally to a complete rebirth of spirit. Seen through eyes of compassion, anger, love and the wisdom of hindsight, Charriere gives a complete story that is not just an incredible adventure story, but a whole moral tale about life, strength, hope and faith.

Rating:
Summary: A fabulous read.
Review: A book full of adventure, intrigue, sorrow, heartache, revenge, joy, and many other expressive words that I can't think of at the moment. I found the ending and the fate of Papillon's fellow escape partner to be especially shocking. A five star classic.

Rating:
Summary: A book that can almost be heard instead of readed
Review: When I readed this book for the first time, I had only watched the film on TV... and not very closely. All what I knew about the book was that it was some sort of autobiography and it had been famous in the 60s as "Papillon" was a convict.

And as soon as I began to read the book, in a great Spanish translation, I got completely trapped by it. Papillon is not merely written, it's like a flow of words that get into your brain like water, and soon you forget who's who, you won't tell if you are either the reader or just the guy at Guyana.

I can't say why, but Papillon is the most fascining "reading" I ever found. I've readed it 6 times and the last one I still was trapped by it. From a reader's point of view, it's a must.

People can opinate a lot about if the book is true; but, you'll rarely find a better written story. To me, the book looks like true; sometimes is too rushed as to have been plotted, and there are little details that make you think, "why bother with this if you were building the thing from scrap?"

There are many lessons to get from Papillon; one is, following the rules when the rules are to die, is dying. The "toughs" never followed the rules, as the rules meant an 80% of casualties in the first 2 years. Papillon is not the ordinary convict, but the "tough" convict, with money and friends. But also has another thing: the strength to break the boundaries of his mind on his own, before the boundaries broke out of control and he loses the mind. The abbility to self-hypnotise himself, plus the insistence in being innocent no matter what was said in the Court, give Papillon the background to that appealing "no surrender" message.

Also, Papillon offers lessons to modern readers. Now that building private prisons and filling them is a blooming business, Papillon helps us to remind that convicts are human beings. Maybe they aren't as easy to pick as Papillon argues, and certainly all them had failed to live an ordinary life, but Papillon takes long efforts to show himself and his comrades as human beings who try to keep being human in hell, while other human beings living in civilisation use their human abbilities to send their brothers to hell. Or to the "Dry Guillotine", as Guyana was grimly known.

Even now, Guyana would appeal to all the people who never care about the convicts -as when looking at it they just see a legal target for their egotic interests. Papillon/Charriere describes this kind of people, those who created the Reclusion, thinking that Guyana wasn't hell enough, it needed another hell of its own, and one that did everything but downright murder the... convicts? Or, victims? This would be just one of the many moral/amoral/unmoral cases that develop before the reader.

I think that you can't take Papillon on the whole; its content is very varied and covers a wide spectrum of moral/amoral/unmoral attitudes, so you need to pick; but anyway reading Papillon is a fascinating experience, and is a book you'll like to read many times. As each time you'll find the same strenght of will, determination and courage you liked before, and the less-than-bright and not-very-clear details will offer you a chance to think again...

To say in short, Papillon is a must. Either to fly in the highest of human soul or to look at the wickest places of the heart, you probably won't have a better mate than this writen, but not readed, instead listened, book.

Rating:
Summary: A book of valor, gallantry, and sheer determination
Review: Papillon is an autobiographical dictum based on the life and events of Henri Charriere. Anyone who is familiar with his story understands the widespread dubiousness that surrounded the release of this book and further dominated the production of Papillon with Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman. Nevertheless, in the introduction to Papillon, Jean-Pierre Castelnau says this:

"As for its authenticity, I can vouch for it...As for the background facts, you need only read Professor Deveze's book entitled Cayenne to be convinced that Charriere did not exaggerate either the way of life in the bagne or its horror. Quite the opposite" (xi).

So as I was reading Papillon, I was constantly questioning its authenticity. But then again, I have always had great veneration and gratitude for such individuals with the prowess, endurance, and will to power to overcome superhuman obstacles. In fact, Mr. Charriere's survival is a superhuman phenomenon that reminds me that human convicition and resolution that may appear at face value an obfuscate goal is on the contrary a rightful testament of our natural human instincts--survival. Survival comes in many shapes and forms, but is an inherent ingredient in our daily decision-making process. Daily we co-exist alongside the frailties of mankind, and when I read of such valor and gallantry in the face of indefatigable despondencies, it speaks to me.

Hence, it is my opinion that everyone read Papillon, conduct the required research, and judge its authenticity themselves. You see, Mr. Charriere maintains his innocence throughout his life reminding the reader that he was a victim of injustice, and a target of a flawed French judicial system. Ironically he alludes to The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas and his desire to avenge the culprits responsible for his incarceration. Of course, his dismisses this idea and dedicates every breath of his penal existence to escaping the bagne. On a final note, there is one successful escape and he ultimately finds refuge among the Indians of Guajiro. He subsists among the Guajiro tribe, receives two wives (i.e. Lali and Zoraima), impregnates both, and is kindly inundated with all the requisite accommodations for a life detached from mainstream society. This brings up a crucial point. Why leave and return to the nuances of everyday life in a world that operates on politics, government, law, and the unrelentless urge to automatize human behavior? There is not enough space to discuss this, but this portion of Mr. Charriere's life does remind me of the movie Castaway with Tom Hanks. It should further elucidate the open-endedness of this review.

Rating:
Summary: a remarkable well-written, *controlled* autobiography..
Review: Despite all the wonderful amazon.com reviews of Papillon I had reservations about reading it. I typically find autobiographical books to be a thinly-disguised excuse for self-glorification. However thankfully Papillon does not follow this pattern. And a much bigger surprise, it is extremely well-written. The literary world would have been a better place if the author started writing books earlier (..perhaps when he was in prison! :-)).

If you've seen the movie Papillon then you have some idea about what the book is about. However the film adaptation is very watered down compared to the book. The book doesn't cease to amaze the horrors of prison life in French Guiana (in the 1930s) and the extraordinary efforts Henri Charriere went through to escape. I was shocked and heartbroken in equal measures. And although the author claims he was wrongfully imprisoned without really explaining the details it is clear he is no angel; he doesn't gloss over his weaknesses and failings.

Bottom line: a terrific tale of horror and triumph. Recommended for those, like myself, who typically hate autobiographical "love me I'm a hero" books.

Rating:
Summary: classic adventure
Review: This real-life adventure tale was a worldwide best seller, translated into many languages. The author, Henri Charriere, called "Papillon" because of the butterfly tattooed on his chest, was wrongfully convicted in a French court in 1931 and sent to a penal colony in French Guinea to serve his sentence. He is determined to escape, and the book takes us through many attempts until at last he attains his freedom and begins a new life in Venezuela. The book is full of heroes and villains---good people who befriend him and treat him decently, and cruel, sadistic people who make his miserable life even more so. Charriere's tone throughout is honest, rarely self-pitying, and unsparing in its depiction of feelings as well as actions.

"Papillon" is marred only by its misconceptions and dated, wrong ideas, especially about health and nutrition. Also, women readers may find the constant diet of adventure with only rare mentions of his loved ones back in France, and of the two children he fathered by girls of a welcoming native tribe, rather unsatisfying. One further jarring note is, as in true in prisons today, apparently a high percentage of the inmate population claim they are "innocent"--a concept that stretches Charriere's credibility.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: "Papillon" is Henri Charrière's autobiographical book about the first half of his life.

Charriere was condemned to imprisonment for life in a penal colony in the French Guyana, for supposedly murdering a man when he was twenty-five. Reaching the prison camp in South America, he didn't stop for one moment to try inumerous and different ways to escape and have back the normal life of an honest man. In the book, Papillon tells us how were the years in prison, the friendship with other inmates, the terrible and inhuman confinement in a prison cell he had to take alone for two years as a punishment while in prison, the evasions and what he did in the brief time he was a free man in Colombia.

All the while, Charriere kept the word that all that was in the book really happened to him during his years in prison in South America. I tried to believe that for most of the book, but there were some things that made me believe that, while the essence of his very hard times is told in the book, the narrative was transformed to provide the readers a more compelling story. As an example, the constant division of the characters in the book: those who were totally friendly and loyal to Papillon, and those who only wanted him to suffer.

But what is important in "Papillon" is Charriere's strenght and his extreme denial in accepting his terrible fate, always trying to make his life and his friends' a little better in the situation they were. Aside from that, it's important to notice that the "correction facilities" and inmates situation maybe haven't changed that much since the 1930s and 1940s. I'm not defending people who were convicted from crimes they have commited, all I'm saying is that the legal system must have a commitment to the people they convict.

Grade 9.0/10