Marlene

July 27, 2020
Two 30-something veterans who served in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen grapple with assimilating back into civilian life in this abrasive novel from French writer Djian (Elle). In a small, unnamed town, Mona, 18, unexpectedly shows up to crash with Dan, the best friend of her father, Richard, while Richard serves a three-month jail sentence for unspecified petty crimes. Richard’s sister-in-law, Marlene, who attracts “whatever calamity is nearby,” annoys her sister Nath by moving to town and announcing she’s pregnant. After Richard is released, his gambling, illegal street racing, drug use, and violence contrast with Dan’s striving to be “the only more or less palatable veteran.” While Dan fights off unwelcome advances from Mona and launches a tentative sexual relationship with Marlene, he and another veteran suggest Richard invest in a laundromat. Richard agrees, while Marlene aggravates Dan by appearing at his house uninvited, and Nath struggles to end an affair in the tangle of unspoken, furtive frustrations that threaten to capsize all the relationships following a sudden tragedy. Djian’s disjointed style results in several jolting shocks and hazy situations, which form a piercing psychological group portrait. Readers who appreciate messy interpersonal dynamics will enjoy piecing together this shadowy story. (Sept.)Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled the author's name.

August 15, 2020
Four misfits battle their demons and each other. The characters in Djian's novel could have stepped straight from the pages of the most melancholy Raymond Carver short story. Dan and Richard are Special Forces veterans of combat in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Yemen, both suffering from PTSD and living in an unnamed town near a military base where their former comrades still depart for and return from war, many of them burdened by the same damage. When Marlene, whose sister, Nath, is married to Richard, arrives unannounced (and newly pregnant) in town, reuniting with Nath for the first time in 18 years, she's the match that sets fire to the emotional tinderbox in which these characters live. Nath and Richard's 18-year-old daughter, Mona, has briefly taken shelter with her godfather, Dan, after fleeing her parents' house for reasons never fully explained. Marlene and Dan drift into a relationship while Nath and Richard's uneasy marriage risks being undermined by both partners' infidelity. The novel begins in shades of gray and slides toward black as incidents of petty crime, physical violence, and sexual betrayal mount. Djian situates the relationships of all five of these unsympathetic characters in a cul-de-sac from which it's obvious early in the novel they lack the ability, or even the will, to escape. That this bleak story culminates in death is utterly predictable, but what's lacking is any truly tragic sense beyond an obvious regret at the senseless loss of human life. That shortcoming results from Djian's choice to spend more time creating a moody portrait of working-class despair than he does plumbing his characters' inner lives in any meaningful way. A grim tale of infidelity and family dysfunction.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.