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A young French soldier in 1888 West Africa has an affair with a Gbeto warrior recruit. Pregnant, she escapes into slavery; he is spared, stripped of his honor, while his friend is executed for the same crime. Forty-four years later their granddaughter sails to Paris, seeking revenge on the soldier—now an old man. She is surprised to find Europe in the grip of rage itself. A land buckling under war, panic, ignorance, death; the machines of murder—a continent even more depraved than her own, its inhabitants more confused than herself. Simone De Beauvoir and budding philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre—teachers, barely more than her age—take her on as a study. They cross paths with Picasso, Dali, Breton, Josephine Baker, even Hitler. This love story fascinates, the characters penetrate, revealing hidden sides of a dangerous time. Insights arise from the Lost Generation, the Napoleonic Codes, Surrealism, Existentialism, Berlin’s acceptance of Nazism. Philosophy, art, travel, war, revenge . . . this history is all very personal. History and odd adventure. And a conclusion that can never be forgotten.

This book is a novel that also serves as nostalgic review of life as a Catholic in the latter part of the twentieth century.

An American Teacher is fascinating reading for anyone concerned with the status of gays and lesbians in American society. Through her Memoirs, and through the story of her life and death as narrated by Jon Pahl, Loretta Coller has lessons to teach us all.