The Battered Man

Matt Hartman is a freelance editor and cataloguer, running Hartman Cataloguing, Editing and Indexing Services.

This autobiographical novel by Toronto theatre director Marion Andre is
described in the closing paragraph as “a reflective compendium of
[Andre’s] Holocaust past. And a monument to all those who were not
chosen to last.”

Andre’s protagonist and alter ego is Anton Thomas, a Polish immigrant
living in Toronto. As the novel opens, we discover that Thomas has a
problem: “In the last few months, for a reason he couldn’t grasp, he
was addicted to silly rhymes. He would speak to Henrietta, his wife, to
his adult children and suddenly, out of the blue, he would make a few
dancing steps and blurt out a sentence or two in rhyme.” Anton turns
to a psychotherapist for help with his problem—his guilt at having
survived the Holocaust—but Dr. Wright’s ministrations serve only to
heighten his stress and anxiety.

This novel is ponderous and mawkish, and not well served by the
author’s flat and halting prose style. The dialogue is embarrassing.
Henrietta says at one point, “I also want you to know that during the
night I read the poem you wrote for me. It made me teary-eyed and happy.
And I bow my head to your suggestion. I want love and peace, nothing
else. I will do all I can to stop quarreling. I want it banned forever.
Banned!”

The Battered Man fails both as autobiography and as fiction.