The Crystal Butterfly Club - Couverture souple

Constantin, A.P.

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1999396715 ISBN 13 : 9781999396718

Editeur : Nuanjia Books, 2020

Synopsis

Marcel, a jaded middle-aged academic who has, by his own assertion, “seen it all” meets Lea, an inquisitive 14-year old abandoned by her father and forced to deal with the struggle of Sunny, her loving but unreliable mother, with alcoholism.“I know I ought to envy content people”, says Marcel; “but I pity them instead”. Erika, his anorexic, high-strung lover, is getting nervous about her ticking biological clock but Marcel is not sure he is ready for parenthood.

Against this backdrop, Marcel finds himself playing missing father, psychoanalyst and shoulder-to-cry-on to Lea, who comes to spend the summer with the couple while Sunny, Erica’s best friend, is in rehab. As the summer wears on, Marcel struggles to stay on the moral side of lines that get increasingly blurred.

The title Club is an e-mail group of girls (this is pre-social media 1999), whose password Lea divulges to Marcel in return for a secret of his own. In the parallel story that unfolds in the e-mails, the frivolous mingles with the tragic in the saga told in different voices—a sick girl full of life, a healthy one obsessed with death, a pathologically shy misfit and a cyber-nerd nicknamed “smaltownhacker”.Relationships tangle and are re-examined, as Marcel plays along with Lea’s seductive behaviour in the smug certainty that he can stop at the boundaries he has placed for himself. His confidence is tested on the night when through a series of mishaps (coincidental or otherwise) the two spend the night alone in the country house while Erika flies away to pursue the opportunity of her career in Silicon Valley.

Dear reader, let us reserve moral judgment for immoral actions and leave immoral thoughts and desires to their owner.The Crystal Butterfly Club explores the frailties of the male psyche but also its unsung strengths. Yes, for every Humbert Humbert there are a hundred Marcels. The story has parallels with Bonnie Nadzam’s Lamb but the main difference is that Marcel doesn’t mind telling us what passes through his head (or through that point where, as he puts it, “soul meets solar plexus”). Finally, here is a thought experiment: Your 14-year old daughter must spend a night in a remote country cottage with an older man; your only choices are Marcel, or a random male.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Nuanjia Books
• Date d'édition: 2020
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1999396715
• ISBN 13: 9781999396718
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 319
• Coordonnées du fabricant: Manufactured by Amazon on behalf of the author; https://www.amazon.fr/hz/contact-us; ; c/o Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., 38 Avenue John F. Kennedy; Luxembourg; L-1855; Luxembourg