Robert's Reviews > Papillon

Papillon was an enjoyable enough summer read; it was just a little hard to suspend my disbelief at times for a supposedly nonfiction endeavor. I was unsurprised to see in my post-reading research that large portions the story were disputed and that several of Charriere's fellow inmates have claimed over the years that he incorporated the experiences of other would-be escapees and presented them as his own story. I guess this book was a precursor of sorts to A Million Little Pieces in that both are perfectly good stories that would go down a lot smoother were they not presented as fact.

I would like to re-read this book soon knowing what I know now, and just accept the story as a communal history of the penal colony prisoners, with Papi as the proxy for several inmates' experiences.