Making Love

In Jean-Phillippe Toussaint's world, the details matter. The author of _Monsieur_ as well as _The Bathroom_, Toussaint excels when cleverly describing situations in agonizing detail, with all the skill of an artful rendering or a classic oil painting. There are no whirlwhinds of action, barroom brawls or car chases. The action in _Making Love_ occurs in scenes involving dropped umbrellas, inconvenient faxes, and missed taxis. A couple has drifted apart, and their relationship will apparently end in Japan. An ultramodern Tokyo provides the sterile spaces against which the drama is played out. The narrator carries a bottle of hydrochloric acid with him at all times. What will he do? Will he toss it in the face of a stranger? His girlfriend? The female protagonist, a prickly conundrum, cries and sulks. As their worlds seem to crumble around them, the couple tumbles through a landscape of outer calm and inner turmoil. As the reader comes to finish the novel, he realizes that Toussaint has made himself a hero of sorts, simply through the molding of his bleakly wonderful creation. What a marvelous novel. While _Making Love_ has none of the humor of _The Bathroom_ or _Monsieur_ (both are recommended), it remains a worthwhile read for Toussaint's gifted description of lives coming apart.