Lead Review (Double Room)
- Book: Double Room
- Location: London, Paris
- Author: Alice Banks (Translator), Anne Sénès
1990s. Stan is a promising French composer who has landed in London. He is working on a theatrical adaptation of “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde and during rehearsals he meets Liv, with whom he falls deeply in love. They go on to have a daughter, Lisa.
In present day he is back in Paris living with Babette and her son Téo, as well as Laïvely, an AI machine he has been inspired to create. Liv, we know, tragically passed away and as the story unfolds, we discover how her death occurred. Daughter Lisa is a continuing presence in Stan’s life now but her general passive demeanour adds to the sense of his burgeoning madness of loss and mourning. She retreats into the shadows as he focusses more on Babette’s young son with his many distasteful habits.
The story moves alternately between the two timelines and the two relationships. Liv is described as ‘a complex symphony’ and Babette ‘a light jingle from the 1960s‘ – the latter is a chipper kind of woman who bounces through life without much depth (illustrated by her musical tastes). These descriptions serve to emphasises the emotional divide between these two big relationships in his life and because he hasn’t come to terms with Liv’s death, he acts out in his subsequent relationship – withholding of himself, struggling to engage and occasionally he has disparaging thoughts about Babette.
Laïvely is like an attachment figure – a comfort blanket – for him that keeps him unhealthily living in the past, a unit that flickers and flashes at him and occasionally emotes. His mind fabricates a voice emanating from it that sounds uncannily like Liv’s voice. It is like a larger Tamagotchi, he doesn’t like to leave it, he craves its proximity, its presence is soothing.
This is a terrific novel of grief and loss and what happens when the trauma becomes deeply buried and insurmountable. Moreover he has a condition that means he is very receptive to colours and sounds, and his experience of the world around him enriches the otherwise sad story with vivaciousness and perspicacity. There is a nice tiny (actually, large) twist at the end and I almost missed it, so, given the quality of the prose, it is worth reading this fairly short novel with great care.
This is a novel that stayed with me, the creative storyline has real depth and humanity. This novel deserves a wide readership.
And a big shout out to the cover designer for creating this extraordinarily eye catching book cover.
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