The book presented by Jérôme Garcin
Her new novel is translated by Chloé Royer. The hero Brendan, Uber driver in Los Angeles, 70 hours of work per week, modest salary… One of his clients, Elise, is a retired university professor and voluntarily helps women in difficulty to have abortions. The clinic where he takes her in his Uber is devastated by an attack perpetrated by a pro-life fundamentalist group, a movement to which belong his wife and a priest, a childhood friend, Todor. For Brendan, it’s the tipping point. He will continue to accompany Elise. A very up-to-date novel.
Arnaud Viviant salutes “a very intelligent novel” and “a great popular writer”
The critic found it terrific, hailing in particular a very intelligent novel on current issues that the American writer is the only one to be able to treat in such a relevant way: “We are dealing with a popular writer who perfectly masters his business. Douglas Kennedy is really one of those very great popular writers. This book is perfect. No matter how much we follow the news, he tells us that, over there, this story around abortion is in becoming a real Civil War, to the point that now abortion clinics are protected by armed people…
It is a thesis novel where he explains the whole problem of abortion, the question of rape, violence against women. All in the conscience of this Uber driver. Beyond all these issues, he treats one magnificently: that of the super rich. Since at the center of this case, there is a billionaire, who like many today feel above the law and commit heinous crimes against young underage girls.
It’s a really interesting reflection, despite an admittedly bombastic ending. But we end up with more questions than answers on the subject.
Patricia Martin still “overwhelmed by this great author-witness of society”
Patricia Martin really liked it. She salutes once again his sensitive literary character which remains unique in the way of analyzing the ills of society while subtly formulating a personal social commitment: “He is a formidable novelist who handles certain romantic artifices with brio and who imposes itself as an incredible witness, observer of society at its most fanatical, appalling, hypocritical where ‘everything is possible American’ no longer really has the same meaning as it once did.
He expresses a form of social commitment, while remaining on edge in the way he has to tell. This man and this woman, he makes them exist in an incredible way. It is really awesome.”
Jean-Claude Raspiengeas applauds “an excellent storyteller of societal stories”
The critic of the newspaper La Croix was completely taken by the staging of the ambient radicalism of the divisions of society: “It’s a description that I have not seen for a long time in a novel about a sick society, populated by Certainly he is not a stylist, but he is an excellent storyteller, an observer of fractures, a seismograph of darkness.
I find it absolutely wonderful the way he tells how, once you enter the Uber system, you are bound hand and foot to a multinational servitude. It’s a book that tells very well about this totally dehumanized system that relies only on the application of algorithms, a kind of Orwellian surveillance system that depends only on our clicks and our appreciations. His character is totally invisible, like all those Ubers are invisible.
It’s great that the novelist puts his strength to denounce it. On the history of abortion, Kennedy also tells very very well, and from the inside, this current fanaticism of intolerance on all sides.
The book
Listen to the full reviews of the book:
“Men Are Afraid of the Light” by Douglas Kennedy
9 min
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📖 LIRE – “Men are afraid of the light” by Douglas Kennedy (Belfond)
► OPEN BOOK | Other works scrutinized by the critics of the Mask and Feather can be found here.
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