Faire mouche by Vincent Almendros (review)

Mouches figure prominently in Faire mouche. The first thing Laurent notices in the house where he grew up in the isolated village of Saint-Fourneau is the quantity of flies, living and dead, scattered throughout the rooms. They are so prevalent that it appears the only function of a dead dog in the novel is to provide temporary lodging for them. Given their preponderance, even expressions like "mouche-toi" (78) or a mirror with its "tain moucheté" (119) bring to mind the Musca domestica before anything else. Curiously enough, except for the title, there is no mention in the novel of faire mouche. Despite the numerous references to flies, these insects do not play a significant role in the novel except to suggest that that this text is filled with fausses pistes and allusions that ultimately lead nowhere. Laurent has returned home for his cousin Lucie's marriage. He has brought his pregnant girlfriend, Constance, with him to meet what remains of his family. Except Constance is really Claire, a friend who has stepped in at the last moment to replace Constance who has disappeared. Claire is not pregnant but exhibits symptoms of morning sickness. Laurent's mother, who is reputed to have tried to kill her son by lacing a drink with eau de Javel, lives with Laurent's uncle, Roland, who is not her brother but the brother of the young man's late father. Lucie hates her cousin's mother for reasons undisclosed and seems to await her wedding day in total indifference. A foray into mushroom hunting yields what appear to be chanterelles but which turn out to be a poisonous species. Finally, since Laurent's narration is so consistently bizarre and disconcerting, one cannot help but wonder whether his comment that "ces souvenirs étaient si anciens que j'avais le sentiment de les inventer" (30) is the truth and feel that the story has no reality outside of the narrator's head. The strength of this novel lies in its capacity to present a series of enigmatic situations, then appear to resolve them, but in so doing create even more complex puzzles. Is Roland Laurent's true father? Is Claire actually pregnant? Why has Constance disappeared? Is Laurent's mother, in addition to being a fine cook, also an accomplished poisoner? The weakness of Faire mouche is, however, a significant one. As the conundrums increase, the pressure for a brilliantly startling resolution grows. This is precisely where the novel falls flat. About two thirds of the way through the book, the reader already has a suspicion of what truly, or just in Laurent's imagination, happened to Constance, and the discovery that this inkling is accurate destroys rather than dissipates the tension. Faire mouche has some fine qualities, the continuously rising tensions in the text, the presence of a possibly addled narrator, and the growing curiosity about the characters, but in the end it fails to faire mouche.