Sartre's Iron in the Soul

June 1940 and France is defeated. Mathieu is amongst soldiers in a small village awaiting the conquerors. Daniel roams an occupied Paris whilst others we know flee.Brunet is captured and tries to seize the opportunity to radicalize the men towards communism. Meanwhile Gomez is in New York, with both his homelands over run by the fascists. Amongst the populacethere is a fatalism that accepts and wants to accomodate the Germans. Sartre captures the dissaray of defeat;the vacuum it creates in a society trying to reform itself around a new reality. Life must go on. This is far removed from the Hollywood portrayals, this is so real and how it was. Sartres dispair of the supine acceptance of defeat is evident, as is the feeling of a people unable unwilling or to fatiqued to see whats staring them in the face;the reality of totalitarian nazi rule. 'Iron in the Soul', the third in 'Roads to Freedom' is written in the more conventional 'novel' form (as opposed to the brilliant stream of consciousness of 'The Reprieve') and its power comes accross as events are detailed as so everyday;events and historical characters are all discussed or mentioned like one might discuss something in todays paper. It brings a searing reality to things. 'The Roads to Freedom' trilogy is superb;the slow drift into war and defeat. The blurb says that this was an abandoned project, that Sartre planed to write more. I dont know weather that would have been a good thing or not;the work is great as it stands. Sartre the writer, the provoker of profound thought knows few equals. As the political ideologist he was flawed, the mistake being that all ideologies end up in paradox, achieving completely the opposite that they intended. Its a wonder Sartre fell for this trap.Perhaps he should have listened to Musil: ' Ideology is fine as long as no one takes it seriously'But forget the enigma of his ploitical leanings, there is so much to be had from his writings.