Regular readers of this blog will know that I am an enthusiast for this magazine. This week's issue, 14 March 2009, is another cracker with much that interested me within its 56 pages.
Among the gems was a lengthy and thoughtful review of The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas. I am a great fan of this French writer and indeed have a copy of this book, due for release in NZ on 3 April, sitting in a pile next to my bed. having read the review I am now going to move The Chalk Circle Man to the top of the pile!
The review by Harriet Waugh starts as follows:
Fred Vargas — nom-de-plume of the French archaeologist and historian Frédérique Audoin-Rouzeau — took to writing crime novels in 1991. Among the many unusual aspects of her books is the English take on the French titles. L’Homme à l’envers appears as Seeking Whom He May Devour, Pars vite et reviens tard as Have Mercy on Us All while Sous les vents de Neptune becomes Wash This Blood Clean From My Hand. These English versions possess a sort of genius which I find irresistible.
The novels have also been translated out of the order in which they were written. Just issued is Vargas’s first, The Chalk Circle Man, which will be of particular interest to those, like me, who love her work, for introducing her police inspector hero, Jean-Baptiste Adamsberg.
Adamsberg — short, dark-complexioned, rumpled and attractive to women — works by instinct, roaming around Paris, half-seeing, half-feeling the city. He is as free of logic as his second-in-command — erudite, alcoholic Adrien Danglard — is attached to it. The novels will not be to everyone’s taste: full of oddballs and eccentricity, they become ever wilder, loopier and more far-fetched. Those not already acquainted with them should start with the best, Have Mercy on Us All, after which it becomes easier to take the absurdities in one’s stride.
Link here to read the full review.
The Chalk Circle Man, Harvill Secker (Random House), NZ$39.99 - 3 April release.
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