41. My French Whore by Gene Wilder

Life is pretty dull and boring for Paul Peachy at the start of Wilder’s debut novel. A train conductor who finds joy being an amateur stage actor, his marriage is falling apart. Since it is 1918, and Paul sees many soldiers going off to war at his train station, he decides to leave his marriage and enlist. Fighting in France, he is soon put to use interrogating the captured German spy, Harry Stroller, as Paul is fluent in German thanks to having immigrant parents. When a battle breaks out the next day, and his friends are killed immediately, Paul deserts the army and flees into the woods. Caught by German soldiers, he cries out in German, and takes on the persona of the German spy, Stroller. Life becomes very easy for the new “spy” and he is even given a French whore, Annie Breton. The two slowly fall in love with each other, but the truth about who Paul really is destroys everything.

A simply written book, it is at times funny, sweet, and sad. While the title may not be the greatest, this is truly a small gem of a book. Readers could picture this being a Wilder/Brooks movie and some may be surprised at how well Wilder writes. Wilder is also the author of the marvelously written memoir, Kiss Me Like a Stranger, which I read last year and highly recommend.