Let's start with the title of this atrocious little novel. The laconic, almost careless title is just right. Does the "oh" stand for surprise? disgust? indifference? Or all of this at once? The book grabs you by the collar and rampages on while its main character tries to make something extraordinarily traumatic commonplace to herself and you the reader. You sense that you are on the precipice of a dormant volcano underneath which is a monstrous magma of twisted sensations, shocks and unrelenting misfortune. Blood and dark secrets, lust and guilt intoxicate the characters. Djian keeps adding quietly to the excesses- with of a character who is, to say the least, complicated. She is shaped by an author who slips quite naturally into the skin of a female narrator to show us how happiness and horror are just random events. A traumatic event after another is somehow reduced to the role of a watermark, a sort of backdrop to the plot. Characters can be spineless, capricious or essentially mediocre and yet they interest you. So much is left unsaid things, there are so many significant silences, crafted by Djian with the pen of a master. Philippe Djian, by plunging us into the unconscious of a middle aged woman makes her live thirty significant days of this woman's life. He makes us ask the big questions on our capacity to influence our future. How far can we live in our lies or our fantasies? Are we programmed for better or worse? Can we produce good when we come from evil?
A truly impactful read.
The novel was indeed the basis for the 2016 psychological thriller film- Elle directed by Paul Verhoeven from a screenplay by David Birke. The magnificent Isabelle Huppert was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and won several Best Actress awards, including the Golden Globe Award, César Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Gotham Independent Film Award, and the Independent Spirit Award.
Babel School of Languages 