“The book has a life of its own outside my control.”
I had to ask – How? Why? I wish there was at least a little spin on this.
It was interesting how Marie’s book Sugar Flowers becomes the centre of intrigue – a missing author and a near-miss when the book misses out on winning the Prix Goncourt award, a seeming playbook for murder that draws police to the publishing house. I’m all for intrigue and that’s why I hoped for something more intriguing than it being nothing more than a coincidence that the men die in the same way as the characters of the book. Sophie and the rest of the police characters weren’t needed, then? (So why was she given such a major share of the plot, if she was merely part of the red herring?) The revelation that Marie was the writer was also a bit of a let-down for me.
Violaine Lepage is interesting as the heroine of the story – such a tragic, colourful, strong personality. However, I wasn’t sure as well if the fear of flying-plane crash-injury cum partial amnaesia line was necessary. It didn’t add much to the main plot. Perhaps we could have had the fear of flying somehow connected to her life experiences. I also found it odd that while she forgets certain major aspects of herself, she can write in detail about her devastating past.
While her daughter Fabienne, whom she sadly never knew, is not a major character, I would have liked some explanation for why she killed herself. Anyhow, did she need to have done so for the story to unfold?
Yes, I do like to have answers to questions and connections for parts. Why throw something up without intending to explain it? Why construct a plot without linking different points cleverly? Obviously, I do not think like the Duchess of Cornwall that this is “Parisian perfection”. Heh.
It wasn’t an awful book. It just didn’t live up to my expectations of a translation of a French novel. I had looked forward to it being unorthodox yet beautiful with its plot and characters, just like the earlier ones. It wasn’t.
I liked best all the references to the work of the publishing house [never knew there was such a thing as a readers’ room] – though some might consider these unnecessary intermissions – and the character I liked was the glamorous blind 'reader' Beatrice, who has her handsome young men reading to her!
What I disliked most was that the book was about sex after all. Many authors have proven that one can write a successful book without it. I will concede that one clever method Laurain uses is to not dwell on it too much although it lies at heart of the plot and of Violaine’s life, but that is a problem for me – it is the crux of the main issues in the plot.
Like I said, it’s not the worst of books but neither is it one that engaged me like the others did.
The Readers’ Room
by Antoine Laurain
translated by Gallic Books (Jane Aitken/Emily Boyce/PollyMackintosh)
Gallic Books, 2020
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