DESSYRE (DES-I-RAY)

A troubled young woman is arrested and faces deportation and prison time in Burns’ novel.

Marisa Susanna Du Plessis was born in Canada, the daughter of Victor Du Plessis and Daniela Gomes Costa (a South African and a Brazilian, respectively), parents who never bothered to secure her American citizenship after they moved to the United States when she was 6 months old. However, Marisa is as American as they come—she grows up in Kansas City, Missouri, attends high school there, and even serves for four years in the Marines before receiving an honorable discharge. She leads a mischievous life, one that sometimes drifts into criminality—she is arrested for drug possession and check fraud. When the federal authorities realize she is not an American citizen, they deport her. Traumatized by her expulsion from the only place she’s ever known, Marisa defiantly returns to the U.S.; her remarkable plight is compellingly conveyed by the author. When she’s caught yet again by the authorities, she is charged with illegal entry into the country following deportation, a serious crime that could land Marisa in prison for 20 years. She’s given assistance and encouragement by Alvey, a 67-year-old musician who gives her a lift one night before she’s arrested and takes a profound interest in her case and her life (“After all that had transpired in the previous month, there was no question in Alvey’s mind but that he would attend the preliminary hearing. Of all the events of the summer of ’23 to date, [Marisa] was the undisputed champion in the arena of Alvey’s attention”). As he investigates her past, both out of a burning curiosity and a desire to help, he peels back the bewildering layers of a life as fraught with difficulty as it is filled with promise.

The heart of the story is Marisa, a memorable protagonist who is exceedingly intelligent—she has a “genius level IQ”—but also possibly mentally ill. As a child, she begins assuming an alter ego, Desiree (which would be amended to “Dessyre”), who cheered on and legitimated her rebelliousness; this identity expanded to encompass a growing defiance of the law. “Desiree was a vestment that would open doors that were otherwise locked to Marisa. Desiree was an intuitive invention that didn’t die in the third grade. She would be resurrected over the years to confront challenges for which Marisa, despite all her innate intelligence, was unsuited to cope. And Desiree would develop in her complexity as life’s circumstances grew correspondently complex.” It is simply impossible for the reader not to sympathize with Marisa—even the legal authorities prosecuting her do—but it’s also impossible not to find her relentlessly self-destructive behavior a source of culpability (and exasperating). The plot has a tendency to meander and stall—Burns simply packs too much into a novel that balloons into something unmanageably prolix. For example, readers learn far more about Marisa’s parents than is necessary to the story, and the narrative probably spends too much time on Alvey as well. Still, this is an extraordinary tale, a riveting “dramatization inspired by true events.”

A gripping story brimming with psychological subtlety.