Crush by Frédéric Dard

 


Of the six Frédéric Dard novels published by Pushkin Vertigo, Crush counts as the odd book out – for, unlike the French author's other five novels featuring an adult male narrator, Crush is a tale as seen through the eyes of a young lady, age seventeen.

And what a tale. It's 1959 and we're in Léopoldville, a small French factory town where lass Louise lives with her mother and mom's partner Arthur, an unemployed bum who drinks too much. Louise never knew her father who took off for good after a round of frisky fun with mum out in the cabbage fields. Her life is anything but colorful: she's a factory worker who turns over her pay to her unattractive mother, who, in turn, spends most of her days sitting in front of the TV next to “dull as a turnip” Arthur.

But a splash of color appears on the scene: an American couple, the Roolands, have rented a large house down the road. Louise becomes fascinated and always slows down for a nice long look on her walk home from the factory. “It seemed like it was somewhere else.” Oh, yes, for Louise, the Roolands' house and front garden with its wonderful swing seat covered by a blue canopy are out on a tiny, mysterious, isolated island. “At first I contented myself with just slowing down as I went past the front of the house. Later, I was so completely captivated that I started going back and forth in front of the place.”

Now Louise knows very well any French couple would take offense but the Roolands found her strange behavior somewhat humorous and began smiling at her as she walked slowly by. Then one evening it happened: “Monsieur Roolands called out in English. “Hello!” and gave me a little wave of his hand. I felt my heart burst into flames.”

Events move apace with the following snapshots: Louise returns home; a drunk Arthur don't like the way she talks to him and gives Louise a hard smack across her face; her mother rushes into the room but just sighs; Louise run to the Roolands and offers her services as a maid; the next day Monsieur Roolands comes to Louise's house and tells her mother they do want Louise as their maid and he's willing to pay more than what she makes at the factory; Louise is now the Roolands' live-in maid.

I included the above blow-by-blow for a specific reason: Dard is all about telling detail. His novels are fast-paced and can be read quickly but if we slow down and examine each scene, each snatch of dialogue, we'll see we're given laser-like penetrating insights into the psychology of his characters and the social context in which they move and are molded.

The way in which people are molded – a statement that brings to mind Émile Zola and the literary school of naturalism, that is, emphasizing just how devastating an influence a character's immediate environment has on their life. In this regard, young Louise holds little doubt. “I cried my eyes out that evening in my shabby little bedroom. It had been decided, apparently: I would always be a prisoner in Léopoldville. The factory, men groggy from wine and fatigue, the bitter stench of cabbages and a television screen with me, Mum and Arthur forever lined up in front of it on our rickety chairs – that was all the future held for me.” Ouch! To read of a seventeen-year-old mademoiselle tolling the bell for fatalism is a world away from genre fiction shelved under Romance.

Yet, in a certain ironic way, Crush can be judged, dare I say it, a romance novel. After all, midway through the flowering drama, when Louise is alone with Monsieur Jess Roolands, we read: "But there was a note in his voice that no girl could mistake, not even a virgin. I felt a sudden urge to grab hold of his jacket. I caught hold of the cloth and pulled him toward me in a wild feminine gesture."

Ah, the emotional zenith in any romance novel. But will the spirit of romance or naturalism hold sway? Read Crush right up to the final sentence to see for yourself Frédéric Dard's answer.


French master of crime fiction Frédéric Dard, 1921-2000