Paul
A Novel
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- 9,99 €
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- 9,99 €
Publisher Description
A New York Times Editor's Choice
"A magnetic, atmospheric, razor-sharp work." —Aysegül Savas, author of Walking on the Ceiling and White on White
An insightful look at a young woman’s search for meaning, independence, and belonging in the face of a consuming relationship
Frances is an English graduate student bruised by a messy breakup. On the spur of the moment, she decides to volunteer at a farm in rural France with the hope that the change of scenery will help clear her head. The farm, curiously named Noa Noa, is owned by Paul, an appealing, enigmatic Frenchman. Frances is charmed by his easygoing ways and by the area itself, both welcome changes from the life she has known. Yet the more time she spends in Paul’s world, the more unmoored she begins to feel. It isn’t long before murmurings about Paul begin to surface and she realizes how ill-equipped she is for the emotional battle of wills that is smoldering around her, one that threatens to silence and engulf her.
In Paul, Daisy Lafarge has written a perceptive exploration of the power dynamics between men and women, told in a fresh and exciting new voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In LaFarge's timid debut novel (after the poetry collection Life Without Air), a young British student gets entangled with an older man during a summer in the French countryside. Frances Hawthorne, 21, is taking a break from her medieval history research in Paris after an unspecified incident with her toxic supervisor to volunteer at farms in the French countryside in exchange for room and board. At the first farm in Lazeaux, however, she becomes enchanted by Paul, her 40-something host. Over the course of her week on the farm, she and Paul fall into a romance before Frances must reluctantly depart for her next farm and hosts. There, after a death in the host's family, she's asked to leave earlier than planned, and she ends up back at Lazeaux, where Paul turns out to be a textbook misogynist. LaFarge confidently evokes the various settings, though often in a way that feels simultaneously heavy-handed and ethereal, such as Frances's description of a Lazeaux McDonald's: "The shift in light in the shaded interior feels vaguely spiritual, as if I'm approaching something sacred." The spiritual motif seems to have something to do with Paul's initial appeal to Frances (he shares the name of a saint), and there's more symbolism in descriptions of cathedrals and murals, but the connections don't fuse to the story of Paul or illuminate Frances. This shows promise, but it doesn't quite cohere.
