The Devil's Reward

March 12, 2018
De Villepin’s flawed English-language debut begins when 86-year-old Christiane, widowed and living alone in Paris, receives a distraught call from her daughter, Catherine, in Milan. Catherine confesses to her mother that her husband is having yet another affair. Christiane, slightly amused at her daughter’s histrionics, invites Catherine and her daughter Luna to come to Paris, delighted at the prospect of their company in her lonely house. When Luna reveals that she is writing a thesis on Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner, Christiane claims to know all about him. Though Catherine expresses skepticism about the veracity of her mother’s memories, the older woman launches in and out of a lively, possibly unreliable, story of her father, Papyrus, his brothers, her elegant Aunt Bette, and their involvement with Steiner over the course of the two world wars. There is much discussion of Steiner’s idiosyncratic philosophies, but the strength and charm of this author’s story—of bonding and healing among three generations of women reveling in their shared history—is obscured by an overwrought translation: “my mother held a handkerchief over her face to prevent any grains of dust from fouling her mouth, which was about to receive the body of Christ. Since we were still laughing, she complained and ordered us to close our mouths with the aim of a similar Christian hygiene.” Though the premise is intriguing, the prose keeps readers at arm’s length.

March 15, 2018
A Parisian grandmother trying to help her daughter through a marital crisis mines the rich history of the family's past in this first novel to be translated into English by prizewinning French author de Villepin.Eighty-six-year-old Christiane lives alone, missing her late husband. She feels little patience for her daughter Catherine's marital complaints but is happy to have both Catherine and her daughter, Luna, take refuge with her. "I choose to be resolutely nonconformist and scandalous," Christiane tells us. "I hate those qualities in young people, but I find them charming among us oldsters." She chides Catherine for overvaluing the marriage pact and delights her granddaughter, who's writing a thesis on pedagogical systems, with family stories about Rudolf Steiner. "I've had plenty of time to measure what one owes to the sacred and what must not under any circumstances be denied to the profane." Born in 1929, "spoiled and rather poorly raised" in a ch�teau, she recalls an adored and charming father with a motorcycle and side car and a prim, religious mother who terrorized her inadvertently with late-night applications of holy water. As she reminisces, a complex family portrait emerges of privilege and deprivation, anthroposophy and debauchery, suffering and grace. "One can't deny that old ladies like myself have tons of experience. When things are going to hell, we at least have this advantage: we know the truth--everything always ends badly." Her beloved father has a dark secret which causes a devastating rupture, and the idyllic childhood of hot air balloons and treasure hunts collapses into social ostracism. "One should not retrace one's steps," she muses, "one quickly smells death and abandonment." Although romantic liaisons are the putative theme here, the deepest relationships are the ones between parents and children. Christiane says, of her daughter, "My greatest love story is her."A sprightly tour through an old woman's family secrets reveals that loving someone often requires the ability to forgive and a certain "sleight of hand."

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April 1, 2018
Christiane, an energetic widow, is secretly ecstatic when her daughter's marital troubles force her to seek solace at chez Christiane. As soon as they're together, though, Christiane and Catherine fall into old patterns, snipping at one another over their vastly different outlooks on life. While Catherine sees marriage as an ironclad contract, Christiane believes that a certain fluidity within a marriage can revive it. They share, however, a deep love for Catherine's daughter, Luna, who's writing a paper on the philosopher Rudolf Steiner, with whom Christiane's family had a history. In retelling this story and the ways it shaped her, Christiane begins to bridge the chasm between herself and her daughter. French-Italian novelist De Villepin's intimate family portrait, her first book to be translated into English, gracefully highlights the ways people of widely varying temperaments learn to coexist. Though at times the dialogue feels a bit pedantic in its philosophical discussions, The Devil's Reward also features gratifyingly in-depth character studies and a strong sense of place.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)