OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN by Jean Rouaud,...

OF ILLUSTRIOUS MEN by Jean Rouaud, translated from the French by Barbara Wright (Arcade: $$10.95; 152 pp., paperback original). In this somber novel, the author of “Fields of Glory” laments the loss of traditional life in postwar Brittany. As the narrator’s father succumbs to premature old age after years of grueling labor, his decline parallels the extinction of Breton customs. Beloved winding roads, tiny farms and ancient oak trees are bulldozed to clear the way for sterile turnpikes, agribusinesses and suburbs; it is a moving critique of the homogenizing effects of industrialized 20th century society.