Bad Marie

May 10, 2010
Dermansky follows her lauded debut, Twins, with a trite tail about an ex-con's unlikely re-entry to the world. After serving six years for harboring a fugitive—her bank robber boyfriend—30-year-old Marie is released and misses the decisionless ease of prison life. She finds work as a live-in nanny (nothing like a felon watching your pride and joy) for two-and-a-half-year-old Caitlin, the daughter of her childhood best friend, Ellen, with whom she has a rocky, competitive relationship. In a hard-to-believe coincidence, Ellen is married to the French author, Benoît Doniel, whose book Marie read repeatedly while in prison, and soon enough, Benoît and Marie kick off an affair and decide to run away to Paris together with Caitlin. But when Benoît's true colors are displayed before even landing in the City of Lights (thanks to another unbelievable coincidence), Marie finds herself taking on the role of a single mother in a strange land, though her travails never really impede on her relatively charmed streak. It's off-putting how heavily the plot relies on implausible twists, and Marie is too sketchily drawn to carry the full weight of the story.

April 15, 2010
Marie truly is bad—a toddler kidnapping, husband stealing ex-con with a giant chip on her shoulder.

As the novel by Dermansky (Twins, 2005) begins, Marie's just served six years in prison for helping her boyfriend (of less than a week) Juan Jos escape to Mexico after he was involved in a fatal bank robbery. For reasons that never ring true, as soon as she's released Marie lucks into a nanny job with her childhood friend/nemesis Ellen, a successful New York lawyer. Marie's widowed mother worked as a part-time housekeeper (despite her doctorate) for Ellen's parents, who forced the two girls into friendship. Marie used to steal from Ellen then and she steals from her now—at first jewelry, liquor and money. Ellen's two-year-old daughter Caitlin adores Marie, and Marie is happily ensconced until the night Ellen and her handsome French husband Beno—t come home to discover Marie passed out in a full tub with Caitlin. Ellen is outraged; Beno—t, the author of Marie's favorite novel, is aroused. By the next day he's in bed with Marie, and soon, using hapless Ellen's credit card, he's buying airline tickets to Paris for himself, Marie and Caitlin. But on the plane he runs into his old girlfriend, now a famous actress. By the time Marie realizes that he took credit for writing his sister's novel after she committed suicide, he's abandoned Marie for the actress. With Caitlin and a stolen stroller in tow, Marie heads to the Riviera with a kindly movie star. When he asks Marie to leave, she and Caitlin head to Mexico where she remembers spending happy times with Juan Jos, who later committed suicide in prison. But his family hates her. She abandons Caitlin on the beach to attempt suicide but has second thoughts. Miraculously Caitlin remains safe. Marie checks them into a resort with a stolen credit card and waits for what will happen next.

Some will find this morally ambiguous little romp delicious, others repellent.

(COPYRIGHT (2010) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

May 15, 2010
Dermansky follows her bold debut, Twins (2005), with a wickedly nihilistic and suspenseful tale of erotic mayhem. Impulsive, larcenous, and utterly self-absorbed, not to mention vampishly beautiful, Marie rather liked prison, where she could read her favorite book, a novel by a French author named Beno+t Doniel, over and over. Her handsome young Mexican lover and inept accomplice hung himself in jail, and her mother wont even pick her up, so upon her release, Marie heads for her old friend Ellens swanky New York apartment. Smug Ellen knows how dangerous Marie is, yet she desperately needs a nanny for her precocious toddler daughter, Caitlin. As for her husband, its none other than Beno+t Doniel. Bewitching and commanding, Dermansky creates a template for either a comedy of sexual errors or an all-out tragedy, then keeps readers guessing until the very end. Set in New York, Paris, the Riviera, and Mexico, this is an edgy, speedy, stylish, unpredictable, funny, and heart-stopping tale of a damaged soul who finally finds love in the clear-eyed intelligence, trust, and joy of a child.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)