The Multiple Child

In this simpering allegory, a child from Beirut goes to live in Paris with relatives after his parents are killed by the same bomb attack that tore off one of his arms. At first, poor little Omar-Jo repels his cousin Rosie and her husband Antoine. ``The sight of that mutilated, incongruous thing turned their stomachs.'' Besides, Rosie is too busy trying to win her husband back from his mistress to deal with Omar-Jo. Twelve-year-old Omar-Jo quickly ingratiates himself with Maxime, a disillusioned merry-go-round owner, and he soon draws a crowd with such revolutionary marketing ideas as putting up posters. Omar-Jo plays to the crowd, drawing them in and then revealing his stump and his story but descriptions of these performances are vaguely worded...