[Romain Gary's] themes, being huge, demand huge stories. In "Lady L," he indulged in melodramatic fluff lesser writers can do better. His "The Colors of the Day" suffered from its own overly glamorous background. But given a truly heroic setting, Gary proves himself one of the rare writers left who are capable of true heroes. This he demonstrated in "The Roots of Heaven" and in his undeservedly obscure "The Company of Men."…

"The Company of Men" described Luc Martin's emergence at 14 from the anti-Nazi underground into the post-war underworld. Luc knows that his father, a Resistance fighter, was killed for some great good cause; and as the book builds poignantly, as Luc cuts and jabs his way through the blackmarket jungle, he is haunted by that unknown goodness the way good men are haunted by evil.

In "A European Education" the story is similar, though transposed a few...