cover image Andre Malraux: Man's Fate, Man's Hope

Andre Malraux: Man's Fate, Man's Hope

Kenneth Murphy. Grove/Atlantic, $30 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-8021-1033-6

Driven to extremes by his unbridled energies, Andre Malraux (1901-1976)--revolutionary turned aristocrat turned man of the world--was a Communist fellow traveler, a radical journalist in Saigon at the onset of the nationalist revolt, and leader of an air squadron in the Spanish Civil War. Though the French Resistance fighter and novelist was a hero to the left of the 1930s and '40s, he was ""really a kind of liberal who had a lifelong horror of bloodshed, terrorism and war,"" writes Murphy. As minister in two De Gaulle cabinets, this ""liar"" who largely fabricated his memoirs ""kidded himself that he was . . . the left half that made De Gaulle's regime whole."" Former staff member of the Economist, Murphy restores Malraux's relevance for our time, portraying him as a contradictory personality who lived out the fears and hopes of our century and survived to tell the truth. This towering, vibrant biography is as kinetic and thought-provoking as its many-faceted subject. Photos. (Aug.)