Undercurrents: A Novel

Darrieussecq's UNDERCURRENTS surpasses her first literary hit, PIG TALES, in both its vision and its execution. While PIG TALES dripped with sensuality as its main character metamorphosed into a erotic pig, it lost some of its momentum in the middle of the book. Not UNDERCURRENTS. This novel strengthens with every page, and by the end can even be described as a literary pageturner. The premise here is not surreal but ordinary: a woman and her young daughter abruptly leave their husband/father to begin anew in a seaside town. The husband hires a private investigator to track them down, and the woman, unaware, leaves a crucial clue to her whereabouts. The author treats this familiar plot with images of the sea, of what it means to be lured by it, of its power. Even the private investigator settles into its rhythms, lulled by the promises of sea and sand. Although a small book, readers will find it difficult to fly through it, mostly because of the multiple points of view (the mother, the child, the landlord, the husband, the grandmother, the private investigator), none of whom are named. The "she"'s are particularly difficult to place, mostly because the women think and feel more than act, so the reader might have trouble determining by description to whom the "she" refers. Stick with it, though, because the rewards of reading this slim volume are well worth a little concentration and deciphering.My biggest criticism of this novel is the absence of emotion. All the characters refer to the young girl as "the child", as though she were an object, so it makes it difficult to understand why the woman took her daughter with her in the first place and why the husband wants his daughter back with him. The characters have little, if any, emotional connection to one another. The sole object of passion is the sea. While that may have been Darrieussecq's goal, the emotional distance negates the plot, for why would a man track down his wife and child if he did not love them, or hate them, or have strong feelings one way or another? And why would a woman pack up and leave unless she had strong feelings about her life as it was? Things seem to just happen in this world, without the "undercurrents" of emotion. Still, what the author has accomplished here is extraordinary. The prose is lyrical and mesmerizing, particularly as the novel finds its stride, and the concept, the sea as a Siren and as a unifying force, works well. Fans of Darrieussecq's earlier works will find this novel even more satisfying. It also makes a interesting companion book to another French novel, also published by The New Press, Jean Echenoz's I'M GONE.