After the Circus

Starred review from September 1, 2015

Published in 1992, this brief, polished, ultimately poignant story is classic Modiano: the superbly lean, undemonstrative style withholds as much as it tells; the characters leave much unsaid; the atmosphere is moody, even noir; a troubling ambiguity leads to creeping unease; and the present and past are enfolded sentence by sentence, just as the past is never really shaken out of our lives, even if it sometimes gets submerged. Just 18, rooming with the lascivious friend of his absent father, and preparing to go to Rome for work, the callow protagonist meets the somewhat older Gisele when they are both interrogated by the police for unclear reasons. He ends up bringing Gisele to his apartment, where she stashes a suitcase, then meets some shady friends of hers, one of whom agrees to lend them his car if they do him a small favor. The favor starts looking questionable, and as Gisele's possibly unsavory past starts unwinding (we can't be sure the details are true), our hero wonders what he's gotten himself into--yet commits to Gisele wholeheartedly, ever worried that she will vanish. VERDICT Not for readers who like answers but smart and strangely moving and an excellent representation of Modiano at his best.--BH

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