Who You Think I Am

January 30, 2017
Told through documents including depositions, transcriptions, and novel fragments, Laurens’s (In His Arms) intricate and cerebral novel explores the construction of identity and the politics of age, gender, and desire. The story is introduced through tapes of therapy sessions between divorced 48-year-old comparative literature professor Claire Millecam and a therapist identified only as Marc B. Frustrated by her elusive lover, Joe, Claire decides to track him by friending his sometime roommate, Chris, on Facebook. To interest the younger “KissChris,” she constructs a persona using the name Claire Antunes and a photograph of a younger woman she claims she found on Google. Her immersion in the virtual relationship with Chris and her false persona deepens, and both begin to obsess her—but when she tries to make a break, disaster strikes. As the voices of Marc B., Claire’s ex-husband Paul, and a writer named Camille Laurens are added to the narrative, the “facts” first established begin to dissolve, breaking open to reveal new possibilities. Though heavy-handed disquisitions on gender disparity and female aging early in the book may deter some readers, Laurens crafts the novel’s nested secrets meticulously, producing tricky and thought-provoking surprises until the very end.

April 1, 2017

In this novel of identity, obsession, and our slippery grip on reality, 48-year-old Claire Millecam is so desperate for news of casually cruel, here-again-gone-again lover Joe that she constructs a false identity as the much younger Claire Antunes and friends Joe's sometimes roommate Christophe on Facebook. Her interest soon turns to Christophe himself, and it doesn't end well, as the police recordings and therapist's interviews opening the book suggest. Soon, however, other material appears, including a therapist's report, a novel fragment, and the draft of a letter, all of which call into question our initial understanding of what has happened to Claire. Do novelists construct avatars to clarify and shroud the truth simultaneously? Do we all? Prix Femina award winner Laurens (In His Arms) deftly investigates these questions, but the real engine of the narrative is Claire's dangerous energy and uncomfortable articulation of sexual conflict and inequality. VERDICT A well-constructed example of literary/commercial crossover that will prickle readers.

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