I thought of Jonah and John when

a friend forwarded me this passage from the 1979 novel “Shibumi,” by the

novelist Trevanian. It’s a conversation between Le Cagot, a Basque, and Hel,

an Englishman:

Le Cagot patted the hostess’s bottom and sent her after their food. “I
don’t think we have made a great friend there, Niko. And he is a man to be
feared.” Le Cagot laughed, “After all, his father was French and very active
in the resistance.”
Hel smiled. “Have you ever met one who was not?”
“True. It is astonishing that the Germans managed to hold France with so few
divisions, considering that everyone who wasn’t draining German resources by
the clever maneuver of surrendering en masse and making the Nazis feed them
was vigorously and bravely engaged in the Resistance. Is there a village
without its Place de la Resistance? But one has to be fair; one has to
understand the Gallic notion of resistance. Any hotelier who overcharged a
German was in the Resistance. Each whore who gave a German soldier the clap
was a freedom fighter. All those who obeyed while viciously withholding
their cheerful morning ‘bonjours’ were heroes of liberty!”
Hel laughed. “You’re being a little hard on the French.”
“It is history that is hard on them. I mean real history, not the verite a
la cinquieme Republique that they teach in their schools. The truth be
known, I admire the French more than any other foreigners. In the centuries
they have lived beside the Basque, they have absorbed certain virtues-
understanding, philosophic insight, a sense of humor- and these have made
them the best of the ‘others’. But even I am forced to admit that they are a
ridiculous people, just as one must confess that the British are bungling,
the Italians incompetent, the American neurotic, the Germans romantically
savage, the Arabs vicious, the Russians barbaric, and the Dutch make cheese.
Take the particular manifestation of French ridiculousness that makes them
attempt to combine their myopic devotion to money with the pursuit of
phantom ‘gloire’. The same people who dilute their burgundy for modest
profit willingly spend millions of francs on the atomic contamination of the
Pacific Ocean in the hope that they will be thought to be the technological
equals of the Americans. They see themselves as the feisty David against the
grasping Goliath. Sadly for their image abroad, the rest of the world views
their actions as the ludicrous egotism of the amorous ant climbing a cow’s
leg and assuring her that he will be gentle.”