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A review by erinbarton
Paul by Daisy Lafarge
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
the writing is mostly good but has some very heavy-handed metaphors, and some side characters have less presence than they deserve. frances is at face value an interesting main character (a self-taught french speaker, recent degree in french medieval history, immediately coming out of a relationship with her professor), however on the page is so passive with unclear motivations and desires. she is seemingly put off by paul from the beginning but engages in a relationship with him anyway.
the strongest part of this novel for me was the setting, the descriptions of nature and the constant heat made this very immersive to the south of france and the farms frances is working at.
while the ending did take me by surprise, the character of paul was always off from the beginning for me - never alluring or charming in any way and didn’t seem to have any chemistry between him and frances, nor seemed to have much status with other characters either.
retrospectively, there are hints to paul’s paedophilia throughout the novel ie the subjects of his photographs are young naked children, his conversation with the local village girl in which he is overly friendly and encouraging, his pet name for frances being a nickname reserved for young girls misbehaving. i’ve never heard of the real-life character in which this is based on and so i was very much surprised by the reveal, however this was very hastily explained with some questions left unanswered.
the strongest part of this novel for me was the setting, the descriptions of nature and the constant heat made this very immersive to the south of france and the farms frances is working at.
retrospectively, there are hints to paul’s paedophilia throughout the novel ie the subjects of his photographs are young naked children, his conversation with the local village girl in which he is overly friendly and encouraging, his pet name for frances being a nickname reserved for young girls misbehaving. i’ve never heard of the real-life character in which this is based on and so i was very much surprised by the reveal, however this was very hastily explained with some questions left unanswered.