Ménis Koumandaréas' 'Le beau capitaine' Reviewed: A Tale of Beauty and Political Suspense

The novel 'Le beau capitaine' by Ménis Koumandaréas, published by Quidam éd. in the 'Made in Europe' collection, is reviewed. The story begins with a narrator who files a request with the Council of State and is advised to consult a retired councilor. In the councilor's office, the narrator becomes fixated on a small framed charcoal drawing of a young officer, prompting the councilor to recount the officer's story. Years earlier, the 'beautiful captain' had also filed a request after being denied promotion in the army. The councilor, captivated by the captain's beauty and bearing, takes up his case and secures a reversal, but the promotion is again refused. Set in the 1960s, the narrative unfolds against the backdrop of political turmoil leading to the 1967 coup of the colonels in Greece. The captain is suspected of subversive activities—he reads, discusses, plays cards—but the source of enmity remains ambiguous: his superior Kakoulàkos or the shadowy Mavrokèfalos. The captain's fiancée, after meeting Mavrokèfalos, abruptly leaves him. The novel sustains an atmosphere of suspicion and suggestion, reminiscent of Melville's 'Billy Budd' and evoking Captain Ahab's obsessive pursuit. A student dies at the hands of police, covered up by media, while the captain persists naively toward his doomed goal.