Vengance is Mine (2023) by Marie NDiaye

 Book Review

Vengeance is Mine (2023)

by Marie NDiaye

Translated by Jordan Stump

  Actress Teri Hatcher physically handed me the hardback copy of the English translation of Vengeance is Mine, the most recent novel by French author and 2009 Prix Goncourt winner Marie NDiaye, so of course I had to read the book.  I hadn't heard of NDiaye but reading the book flap was enough to convince me of NDiaye's merit as a writer.  First of all, the Prix Goncourt is a top-shelf literary prize, and while the English translations are not always forthcoming, the handful of winners I've read are among my favorite French authors and/or titles- Houellebecq won the year after NDiaye, and Littell won for The Kindly Ones- one of my favorite books from 2000-2010.  I also loved The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier (2020 Winner).  What I'm saying is that I will automatically read a Prix Goncourt winner in English translation given the opportunity, even if the opportunity isn't Teri Hatcher handing me a copy.

   Truth be told, I was expecting a fragmented, elliptical tale that intertwined questions of class, family and professional intrigue, and that is exactly what I got.   This was a "true crime" novel about a lawyer and her relationship to the client's family in the same way that French Nobel Prize Winner Patrick Modiano writes "detective stories." I.E., not really at all by American genre standards.  Honestly, I'm super curious about why this book got a big run by AAKnopf in the first place- it looks like they signed her up after she won the Prix Goncourt but it has been pretty quiet since then.  The New York Times had reviewed only one of her books- in 2016- before this book was published last year.  Mysterious.  I certainly would be down to check out another book by her but I wonder how much I would appreciate it, if Modiano is a clue the answer is, "not much, probably."