Summary

Book 5 begins with Claude and his men exploring Paris waiting to receive their orders. The company wants cheese, but cannot communicate with the shop keeper until Claude “perform[s] the bravest act of his life” and tries to speak French (144). Claude’s attempt is successful, and as the shopkeeper watches them walk away after selling them cheese, she thinks she “like[s]” the Americans, but considers their presence “an invasion, like [any] other” (146).

Claude then has dinner with Victor, where Victor tells him he is going to the front lines. After dinner, Claude spies a couple walking through Paris, and notices that they “clung together in an embrace so long… it was like death” (149). The next day, Claude learns that the man in the couple has lost his memory due to an injury; in the hospital...