The Confidant: A Novel [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The characters are interesting and the plot is clever, but the telling is disjointed and incomplete. The Kindle version has no changes in font to indicate which character is talking. The result is a jigsaw puzzle that has pieces missing. Mainly it's a story of one woman's cruel and vicious manipulation of other people's lives in order to maintain her place in society. In doing so, she ruins not only her own life - but that of most of the other characters in the book. The ending is equally confusing. In as much as the ending of the war left gaping holes in lives and structures of France - so the ending to the book leaves equal holes in the plot. I think the reader has to find his/her own closure.

I won a free ARC copy through a giveaway.

I really enjoyed this book. The characters were so well done. Each complex with their own voice that shines through. While you won't agree with their decisions you can see their reasoning and how well it fits with who they are. All of them extract a response, several responses usually, and nothing is simple. I didn't have a problem at all with the speed or pacing. I was so wrapped up in story. It really is riveting. The plot twists and turns leaving your stomach in knots. I just couldn't put it down.

While I'm sure there are other books along the same plot idea this book just does it so well. Even if it sounds contrived and over done and you think you know where the story is going before it starts, I still recommend it. I highly recommend it for everyone really. If it doesn't surprise you, it will at least draw you in and entertain you. Now it's an easy read but it's not light. It deals with heavy topics with a backdrop of a very depressing and terrifying time. It's a drama. A small scale drama where things just cascade out of control. There's so much information given in the blurb so you know what you're heading into yet that knowledge won't spoil the journey at all.

I liked the resolution and don't think I would have liked it ending any other way.

There were minor issues with the writing where I had to re-read to get it but I think that's mostly due to translation. I actually liked the writing for the most part. I like how the typeface changed for each character and didn't have a problem remembering who was narrating.

The ending paragraphs were very moving. I sat for several seconds just feeling it. Then my brain kick it when I realized there was no afterword and it was really the end of the book. That just irritated me. It was just left hanging on what happens next. I don't expect nor want the next 20 years, how about just the next day? Seriously, after the roller-coaster of ride I went though the track stops in the middle of nowhere leaving me to hike the rest of the way. I feel owed to the confrontation between Camille and the remaining parties of this sordid affair. Without this, I'm not satisfied and that's the main reason why this book is 4 stars instead of 5. I loved the book, I just hate lose ends.

When I get a review request in my email inbox for a historical fiction novel with an appealing cover, I just cannot say no. The Confidant, set in Paris, as you can tell from the cover with the ubiquitous Eiffel Tower background, also takes place partially during the WWII era. Basically, I was all kinds of sold. What I love about fiction set in that era is how much variety there is, how much ground to be covered, and, yet again, I found myself in a book very different from any I'd previously encountered. The Confidant is a strange, oddly powerful little book.

The novel opens on Camille, who, in her mid-thirties, has just become pregnant by her boyfriend and whose mother has just died. These facts matter only in how they affect her mental state at the time of receiving the letters. After bereavement, people send letters, sharing stories, offering condolences, etc. Camille receives a thicker, unsigned letter, and opens it, curious to discover what it contains. Inside, she finds a story, one that seems to have little to do with her. The letters keep coming, always unsigned and always conveying a bit more of the story. This narrative device ensnared my curiosity, much as it did Camille's. What happened to the people in these letters? Were they delivered to Camille by mistake?

While the bulk of the novel does take place during WWII, I will say that the war serves solely as a backdrop or a sort of catalyst to the drama of the piece. In fact, this story could have happened in another time or another place. It's a story of a woman and a girl, one desperate to fulfill what she sees as her duty and the other trying to find herself.

The main theme of The Confidant centers around childbirth. Obviously, this isn't a topic of much interest to me ordinarily, but the treatment here really made me think. Madame M desperately wants children, but, despite years of trying, she and her husband have yet to conceive. Constantly bombarded by war propaganda urging the importance of procreation to the continued health of France, Madame M feels guilty and like a failure. Her desperation drives her to try every single rumored cure for infertility, and goodness gracious but it was horrifying. The things women have been asked to do throughout history boggle my mind and sadden me deeply.

The tale told within these pages surprised me in its sordidness and darkness. Honestly, I expected something much lighter. However, The Confidant turned out to be a tale of sex and betrayal. While I didn't connect with any of the characters on a personal level, I could not help being caught up in their drama and the desire to discover just how the past had become Camille's present and where everyone ended up.

Sadly, though, I think this novel could have been formatted much better, as it was rather confusing. There are no chapter headings or indications that you're switching from one narrative to another, besides, sometimes, a change in font. Camille's narrative is an awful sans serif font. Then, without warning, the novel switches to Louis' letter. This, at least, had the benefit of being in a different font, but there was no transition at all, so it was jarring. More troublesome was the switch to Annie's perspective, which had no distinguishable difference from Louis'. I read several pages before I finally figured out what was going on. Once I knew what to expect, I didn't have any problems, but this really could have been handled better.

Grémillon has a poetic sort of writing style, which, while not entirely unpleasant to me, simply was not a style that has particular appeal to me. The phrasing was occasionally quite strange, and reads perhaps more like free verse than prose perhaps, though it could also be a result of an awkward translation from French. Grémillon even ends the novel with a poem, which definitely went rather over my head. I've been trying to do better, but I still have difficulty appreciating poetry.

For those of a poetic persuasion with an interest in women's issues and history, Grémillon's debut is a must-read. Though it did not end up being precisely my kind of book, I can recommend it highly as a quality read for a slightly different style of reader.