A surreal comedy of manners that’s also a surprisingly penetrating work of psychological fiction.
A stalkee becomes a stalker and starts to understand its attraction in this off-center romance.
Filipacchi (Vapor, 1999, etc.), not wasting time, opens memorably with “Lynn stalked. She had taken up stalking for health reasons, but it was not paying off as handsomely as she had hoped.” Lynn, it turns out, is a New York gallery owner at the top of her game, with artists fighting to get in her space and her eye for the next big thing being widely acknowledged. But, even so, she’s recently lost her desire to do, well, anything with her life. In the midst of her malaise, she’s picked up a stalker, Alan, an accountant described by a friend as “a short, fat, balding man with blue eyes and a few patches of yellow fuzz” who prefers to think of himself as an “admirer.” A convoluted bit of bad logic later, Lynn has decided that a good way to regain her desire is to become a stalker herself (stalkers have to desire something, right?), and so she picks a man at random in the bakery and starts following him. Alan, not exactly the confident sort, becomes insecure about the object of his admiration stalking someone else and so becomes friends with the man (Roland, a Frenchman of exquisite arrogance). And this is just the beginning of Filipacchi’s roundelay of stalking, affairs and sexual one-upmanship that has Lynn pairing off with Roland (but only after she realizes he’s not attracted to her, making him infinitely more attractive) and Alan joining a stalker recovery group only to start dating someone from the sex addict’s group next door. For all the goofiness of her scenarios—and there’s plenty here that’s full-on farcical—Filipacchi delves into her characters, laying out their insecurities with an honesty that gives the story a special resonance.
A surreal comedy of manners that’s also a surprisingly penetrating work of psychological fiction.Pub Date: June 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-312-34032-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2005
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an...
True love flares between two people, but they find that circumstances always impede it.
On a winter day in London, Laurie spots Jack from her bus home and he sparks a feeling in her so deep that she spends the next year searching for him. Her roommate and best friend, Sarah, is the perfect wing-woman but ultimately—and unknowingly—ends the search by finding Jack and falling for him herself. Laurie’s hasty decision not to tell Sarah is the second painful missed opportunity (after not getting off the bus), but Sarah’s happiness is so important to Laurie that she dedicates ample energy into retraining her heart not to love Jack. Laurie is misguided, but her effort and loyalty spring from a true heart, and she considers her project mostly successful. Perhaps she would have total success, but the fact of the matter is that Jack feels the same deep connection to Laurie. His reasons for not acting on them are less admirable: He likes Sarah and she’s the total package; why would he give that up just because every time he and Laurie have enough time together (and just enough alcohol) they nearly fall into each other’s arms? Laurie finally begins to move on, creating a mostly satisfying life for herself, whereas Jack’s inability to be genuine tortures him and turns him into an ever bigger jerk. Patriarchy—it hurts men, too! There’s no question where the book is going, but the pacing is just right, the tone warm, and the characters sympathetic, even when making dumb decisions.
Anyone who believes in true love or is simply willing to accept it as the premise of a winding tale will find this debut an emotional, satisfying read.Pub Date: Oct. 16, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-525-57468-2
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: July 30, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal...
A gumbo seasoned with ghosts, love, and murder on the bayou.
When 30-something Declan Fitzgerald of Boston, a successful lawyer and a member of a large and loving family, breaks off his engagement to very suitable Jessica, he knows he needs to change his life. Lawyering is not fun anymore, so, recalling Manet Hall, an old deserted plantation house he once visited with law school classmate and New Orleans native Remy, he buys the property and moves down south. Declan is also a gifted craftsman, a born decorator, and very, very rich. Soon, he meets beautiful Lena, who’s visiting her grandmother Odette, Declan’s friendly Cajun neighbor. Declan is as certain that Lena is destined to be his wife as he was that Manet Hall would become his home. But, surprise, Lena has a troubled past (like the house) and is determined to resist Declan’s courtship. While he suits Lena and works on the place, Declan experiences troubling dreams. It seems he’s actually reliving the novel’s parallel story, which took place in 1899. In that year, the maid, Abbey Manet (from whom Lena, coincidentally, is descended, and who married wealthy Lucian Manet), was raped and murdered by her brother-in-law Julian as she nursed her baby daughter. Her body was dumped into the bayou by her mother-in-law, who despised her. And grief-stricken husband Lucian, away at the time, being told that Abbey had run off, committed suicide. Now, in an unconvincing twist of gender and reincarnation, it’s Declan who hears a baby crying , experiences childbirth and rape as the reincarnation of Abbey, while Lena is Lucian. The two accept all this with equanimity, and, Manet Hall’s secrets revealed, it becomes the setting for predictable and much foreshadowed resolutions.
Agreeably credible lovers and a neat piece of home-restoration compensate some for the hokey hauntings on the bayou. Loyal fans will enjoy.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-399-14824-8
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Putnam
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2001
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