Maria returns to her native city, Paris, after a gap of 14 years. She's 33. The back-story's gradually filled in. Her father left when she was 2. Her mother died when Maria was 17. Maria went to New York at 18, hoping to start at a good university. We're not told her reason for suddenly leaving a good PR consultancy job she eventually got in the States.
She's beautiful. "I don't remember ever having gone to bed with a man I didn't want to go to bed with. I know these days received wisdom has it that men are beasts and incapable of taking 'no' for an answer. That hasn't been my experience. Perhaps my no's always sound definitive. Or perhaps men are simply afraid of beautiful woman" (p.62).
In Paris she starts working for the legal firm run by Paul. The US, UK, and French legal systems' attitudes to female murderers are compared.
She meets 2 childhood friends - Beatrice, who she went to school with - plain, good and happy (Maria feels guilty about mistreating her when they were girls); and Robinson, married with a child. She spent English summers with him when little. She slept with him several times, but that's the case for just about all the men mentioned in the book, bosses especially.
On p.230 we discover she's an author. On p.231 we flashback to 1991 when she's still at the PR consultancy. While doing charity work she met Sandro. Having started an affair with him he told her he's married. He left his wife and child but she still dumped him. He killed himself. His wife called her a murderer and started threatening her, which is why she left the States.
Back in Paris we learn (not to my surprise - there'd be too many unlinked characters otherwise) that Beatrice's husband is Paul, her current boss, who she's having an affair with. So she breaks with Paul. But she has to explain why she'd moved into a flat opposite his. She discovers that she has a half-brother, part Vietnamese, who's visiting Paris.
Beatrice's sad history is divulged by Paul. Paul and Beatrice's 2 children have unexpected pasts. Beatrice sends a letter to Maria saying she's going to leave Paul and the children, which solves many problems.
The dialogue is lively, and Maria's intelligence is flirty. Her dreams sound contrived. The novel depends on several coincidences, modelling itself on novels rather than life. Fair enough.
There's a typo on p.78 - "I laugh brittly". Bitterly? Brightly?
No comments:
Post a Comment