MY DEVOTION

An ambiguous relationship is turned inside out in this intensely vivid novel.

Helen and Frank have lived together for decades—first in Amsterdam and later in Normandy. The nature of their relationship is somewhat murky. They’re devoted to each other, but they both take other lovers; at one point, Helen gets married and moves to Boston. Quiet Helen is a writer and a scholar while Frank develops an international reputation as a painter. This swift, intense novel is narrated by Helen, who, in the present day, reflects on a shared life that ends, finally, in spectacular violence. French novelist Kerninon’s prose has a rare clarity, and the details of Helen and Frank’s life accrue with assiduous force. We’re told early on that the story will end with an innocent death, but whose death approaches, and why, and how, isn’t revealed until the very end. Helen emerges as a richly complicated figure, full of contradictions. Unfortunately, the same isn’t true of Frank. He takes advantage of Helen’s nurturing—for years, she handles their domestic lives while, oblivious, he carries on painting—but beyond that, his interiority never comes into focus. This is partly due to the unnecessary gimmick on which the novel depends: In the present day, Helen has run into Frank on the street, and her narration of the novel is supposed to be a kind of monologue that she addresses to him. That gimmick tests the reader’s credulity. Still, the novel unwinds with such a propulsive momentum that these minor flaws are easily forgiven. This is Kerninon’s first book to appear in English; hopefully, there will be many more.

Kerninon’s novel charms and unsettles to an equal degree, and a few small flaws fail to detract from the book’s power.