Aliocha by Henri Troyat

 Oh, you'll cry, reading Aliocha

by Henri Troyat, believe me, you will. This book is in fact a story of a friendship between two teen-agers, 14 years and the beauty that a good friendship can brings in the life of people.

Alexis is Russian and he is in Paris with his parents, Georges Pavlovitch and the mother, Helen Fedorovna. They escaped away after the Russian Revolution and they have lost more or less everything. They live in a little house, and they don't have anymore a lot of money as in the past. Alexis when in Russia, studied french thanks to a  private teacher: once arrived in Paris becomes a passionate of french culture and literature. He is so good, that, one day, once returned home he tells to his parents that he is one of the best ones of his classroom. But their parents are worried because of what they are seeing. They hope that the departure of Lenin will bring back a government similar to the one that there was before the advent of the Bolschevic and they can return home:  of course it's not said.

Alexis is pretty hurted and irritated to see his parents lost in a distant past, distant country and where possible, distant problems and culture. In France they have everything: there is a musical language, there are books written by so many remarkable authors, great food: why eating continuously russian food, reading russian books? Oh, it's intolerable!

In his same classroom there is a tender, cute, sweet teenager Thierry Gozelin. He is so rich, lives in a  beautiful house, but mainly, he is a beautiful mind. Thierry has read much more than not what done by  Alexis: Alexis starts to exchange ideas on authors and books with him and Thierry finds Alexis interesting. So interesting that one day he asks him if he wants to spend some time with him to his house.  The two friends have a loyal confrontation regarding russian literature: Alexis, called Aliocha by his parents, rejects with all himself russian language, literature, food, religion... Simply because enough is enough and the past is over. He is irritated to see that not just his parents but also the Russian friends of his parents are researching their past in a different country. 

To Thierry the point of view of the friend is not correct: after all, being an emigrated means having a priviledged point of view: and plus, he shouldn't forget Russian: Russian literature is beautiful. Thierry asks to Alexis if he has read War and Peace by Tolstoi. Alexis replies, no: Thierry will tell him that, yes, maybe the book is not properly short, but deserves the reading, and if read in Russian would be better.

To Alexis this requests, this simple idea is unthinkable. Once arrived the summer-time the teenagers will spend some time together in vacation. Alexis really enjoys the time spent with Thierry. Thierry knows his destiny and he is pretty disenchanted regarding his future, distant or close, but accepts his limitation with the joy of his age and the wisdom of his soul.

Unfortunately during the vacations the first signals of a deterioration of the health condition of his friend. Alexis returns to Paris and thanks to letters he continues to describe to his friend what it is going on, what he is reading and when school starts, what it is going on at school as well. If at first Thierry answers back immediately, later tells to his beloved best friend that he is too sick to write properly a letter. 

Then, one day, Alexis finds her mother sat in the kitchen with an opened letter in her hands, and tells him that Thierry is dead. The shock for Alexis is great, and days and months passes by without any importance. He has lost the best friend of all the Earth, the one with which exchanged opinion on literature and readings, and sunny funny facts of a daily base.

Friendship also when interrupted brings seeds of love, and one day Aliocha notices three tomes of War and Peace, written by Tolstoi and in original language. He brings them in the kitchen. His parents are curious: Aliocha hasn't never manifested the desire to understand their culture: does he wants to read that book?

Yes, replies Aliocha, in Russian. Exactly as Theirry would have wanted from him. 

Anna Maria Polidori