Someone Else

Two men meet in a Tennis club in Paris. After a game and a few drinks, they decide to challenge each other to 'change' who they are, and adopt a new identity. They will meet each other in three years time, with their new identity. As a concept, this in intriguing. I don't quite feel the blurb on the book explains it too well - one of the characters undegoes the complete identity change, the other just seems to find his solution in alcohol changing his shy, anxious outlook on life. Of the one who undergoes the complete make-over as it were: he gives up his job as a framer to become a PI. He leaves his wife without warning, gets plastic surgery to change his appearance, and starts his new life. He even turns up at his own remembrance service two years after his disapearance, unnoticed. The alcoholic is previously tee-total and works in some soulless corporate job. When he starts drinking he meets and exciting beautiful woman and starts a relationship with him; he also find success in work as he just tells people what he thinks. He also invents a 'trickpack' which is a soft drinks can cut out to hide a can of alcohol - the patent to this makes him a millionaire. The first man changes himself physically, the second cerebrally. The book is interesting, but doesn't quite hang together. The alcoholic seemd magically transformed by the alcohol, but without suffering any side-effects such as vomiting, agonising hangovers, etc. He is sympathetic though, which is more than can be said for the other character, who you just can't warm to at all. By leaving his wife, job, friends, everything, he doesn't seem to gain anything in particular. Could he not have just changed job, had plastic surgery, but still stayed with his wife? The motivation just doesn't make sense, and feels like a whim. Such amoral, callous behaviour for no obvious gain seems pointless. If he got run down by a car on page 30, I would have thought he deserved it. It becomes interesting towards the end when he appears as a voyuer at his own remembrance party - speaking to the people he used to know without them knowing who he was. But this appears too late in the book really - until then you couldn't care less if he lived or died. But for something a bit different to read, worth a look in.

The two men in their forties met when neither confident of their sport's ability played tennis against each other at Les Feuillants Tennis Club. Afterward Tierry Blin and Nicolas Gredzinksi went to the bar. Over several drinks they both admit to one anther they are unhappy with their present life and the apparent tedious future. Tierry is a successful picture framer who wants to become a private detective while Nicholas is an executive trying to hang onto the corporate ladder that he detests. Under the influence of imbibing too much alcohol they bet as to who could change his life the most. They agreed to meet in three years right here. Both are frightened to make the change, but Tierry tries dropping his loyal clientele to become a sleuth while legal circumstances forces Gred to let go of the ladder. As each leaves their safety net behind neither knows what to expect, but the time has come to find out what makes them tick as the capitalist world has sucked away their identity. However, neither is prepared for the danger that comes as each journey into the unknown fostered by the women in their lives. This is a terrific character study that looks deep into the onset of middle age with mortality around the corner and the need to believe that there is more to life than just making money in a safe environs. The story line rotates point of view between the two lead protagonists yet though clearly character driven has plenty of action. Fans of something different especially those who have become a bit cynical will appreciate this powerful glimpse at the risk of change to become SOMEONE ELSE. Harriet Klausner