'A year ago, everything seemed as simple as a kid's painting book. But now you begin to realize that the Americans are beasts as racialist as the Nazis, and that they don't give a damn if people go on dying in concentration camps. And speaking of concentration camps, it seems as if they've got a few in Russia that aren't very pretty, either. Here they shoot some of the collaborators. And some of the other bastards, who were just as bad, get garlanded with flowers.'

'If you can get angry, that means you still do believe in certain things.'

'No, frankly, when you begin asking yourself questions, nothing stands up. There are a lot of values you're supposed to take as fundamental facts. In the name of what? When you get right down to it, why freedom? Why equality? Does justice have any meaning? Why give a damn about other people? A man who wants nothing else but to enjoy life, like my father, is he so wrong?' Lambert gave Henri a worried look. 'Am I shocking you?'