Voice Over

Starred review from July 21, 2008
In French journalist Curiol’s mesmerizing debut novel, an unnamed young woman drifts, solitary and aimless, through contemporary Paris. She works as an announcer at a train station and is in love with a man who lives with another woman. Her longing to connect with others and dismaying inability to assert herself leaves the protagonist vulnerable to approaches by strangers with doubtful intentions, and she finds herself in a number of sordid and perilous encounters (a one-night stand with a transvestite, trouble with a drug dealer). The sparely plotted novel takes some surprising turns toward the end, as the protagonist and her beloved tentatively become involved, and she reveals to him the roots of her emotional fragility. The novel broods in a classically French way, and the bleak meanderings are beautifully wrought. The ending is, of course, a downer, but it’s earned and powerful.

August 1, 2008
Thisdebut novel, a best-seller in France in 2005, may attractmedia attentionbecause of its distinctive style, titillating subject matter, and the fact that it is oh-so-French. The nameless Parisian female narrator works at the Gare du Nord train station announcing arrival and departure times. With little connection to her coworkers and the harried travelerswho throng the station, she is hardly more than a disembodied voice. The job perfectly complements her emotional state. She is obsessed with a married man who scarcely notices her, and she often finds herself at the mercy of strange men, including a transvestite entertainer, a North African drug dealer, and a psychiatric intern with a bondage fetish.She finally makes a connection withthe man she loves, but things do not go smoothly, and she seems headed for either a breakdown or a breakthrough. Although some readers may tire of the neurotic behavior that Curiol so lovingly details, others will respond to thepalpable emotional tension she creates with her short, clipped sentences and her creepy cast of characters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)