BWW Reviews: VIVIANE Is A Fascinating Psychological Portrait of a Woman Scorned

If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then the title character of VIVIANE has plenty reason to be furious. Her husband leaves her just weeks after the birth of their first child. Her maternity leave replacement at a lucrative PR firm leaves a better impression on her boss than she would have liked. And her twice-a-week therapy sessions only leave her feeling more demoralized.

Yet, Viviane's fury is much more like a muddled chaos. Viviane's proves to be an unreliable perspective, and she is a stranger to her own emotions. At one point, she describes herself as "this body which I inhabit so briefly and intermittently." This idea, that Viviane is foreign to her own self, is the overarching theme of Julia Deck's first novel, translated from French into English by Linda Coverdale. Viviane's self-effacement is best seen in the changing points of view throughout the novel. The narrative is largely told using the second person 'you' form, as if Viviane were taking herself out of the story and inviting readers to imagine themselves in her place. It's a handy way for Viviane to invite sympathy while simultaneously veiling her experiences. The narrative then switches to third person 'she' at times. I found it mostly used when Viviane feels threatened; the objective third person allows her to retreat altogether. In other instances, 'I' is found, sometimes even a mysteriously pluralized 'we.' It's remarkable how much we learn about the character's convoluted identity from these slight changes.

Julia Deck's writing is simple, yet hauntingly evocative. She captures Viviane's anxiety, her obsessions and compulsions with thrilling suspense, and performs quite a complex character study in strikingly few words (the novel is only 160 pages long). Though Deck has stated that her main inspiration for the story came from Samuel Beckett's works, the novel feels almost like a contemporary "Yellow Wallpaper."

Viviane's instability is further illuminated by hallucinations, irrational behaviors, and panic attack. The central question of the novel is whether Viviane will get away with the murder of her psychiatrist, who was just one from a list of indifferent men profiting from Viviane's vulnerability. Deck excels in sprinkling her text with doubts and uncertainties, and the intriguing nature of both the plot and the character's development keeps us more than willing to let her slip the rug out from under us by the novel's conclusion.

To post a comment, you must register and login.