The Front Seat Passenger

by Pascal Garnier, Jane Aitken (Translator)

In The Front Seat Passenger, the 'slyly funny' [Sunday Times] Pascal Garnier tells the story of a young widower whose late wife was keeping secrets from him.

'Devastating and brilliant' Sunday Times

Fabien and Sylvie had both known their marriage was no longer working. And yet when Sylvie is involved in a fatal car accident, her husband is stunned to discover that she had a lover who died alongside her. With thoughts of revenge on his mind, Fabien decides to find out about the lover's widow, Martine, first by stalking her, then by breaking into her home. He really needs to get Martine on her own. But she never goes anywhere without her formidable best friend, Madeleine...

Genres: France, Fiction, Noir, Crime, Thriller, Mystery, French Literature

145 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Pascal Garnier, who died in March 2010, was a talented novelist, short story writer, children’s author and painter. From his home in the mountains of the Ardèche, he wrote fiction in a noir palette with a cast of characters drawn from ordinary provincial life. Though his writing is often very dark in tone, it sparkles with quirkily beautiful imagery and dry witted humour. Garnier’s work has been likened to the great thriller writer, Georges Simenon. Gallic books has now published many of his titles, including - The Panda Theory, How’s the Pain?, The Islanders, Moon in a Dead Eye, and The Front Seat Passenger.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell]

A Georges Simenon romans durs frequently features a protagonist forced to deal with a tragedy or crisis occurring in the opening chapter. I can see why many critics liken Pascal Garnier to Georges Simenon, most especially after reading The Front Seat Passenger.

Similar to a Simenon Chapter One, Pascal Garnier has his protagonist, Fabien Delorme, return from a weekend spent with his father only to enter his empty apartment and play back an urgent telephone message from a hospital telling him his wife has been in a serious road accident. Fabien knows for certain his wife, Sylvie, is dead.

As if a researcher at a microscope in a biology lab, literary artist Pascal Garnier turns up the magnification on his main character to examine the ways in which widower Fabien will deal with life without Sylvie.

The Front Seat Passenger is one probing existential tale. And being Pascal Garnier, also crime noir, although the violence, lots and lots of violence, doesn't kick in until the final third.

The novel is too well constructed and too captivating for me to divulge any of the tantalizing details, thus I'll shift to the book's first chapters highlighting Fabien's psychic dilemmas and gyrations leading up to the unfolding drama and eventual hog-wild hyper-violence.

Smothered Sensibilities - "From the moment she had left them when Fabien was five, she was always referred to as Charlotte, never 'Maman'. Fabien had never heard his father say a bad word about her, nor a good word; he simply didn't mention her." Exchanges with his father leave little doubt Fabien's motherless childhood and adolescence left the young man emotionally starved. Fabien's father can barely communicate with his son beyond a few grunts and stock phrases. Like a virus, this difficulty to communicate infects Fabien and leaves its indelible mark.

Splashing Cold Water on the Fire of Love - "So they had let time elapse between them, slow but inexorable, like the advancing desert. They didn't do anything or say anything about it. They didn't have children or get a dog or a cat. They did nothing and their relationship withered." At first, Fabien and Sylvie were deeply in love, only interested in each other, their happiness overflowing. But one day Sylvie decided their love was abnormal and couldn't last. Perhaps a consequence of Sylvie's abortion, their love and passion quickly turned into cold, stale indifference.

Signature Black Humor - "The inspector walked the way he talked, in hurried little bursts, throwing anxious glances over his shoulder, as if he feared Fabien would try to escape. The brown paper case from a cream cake was stuck to his left heel. It reminded Fabien of one of those paper fishes from April Fool's Day." Fabien follows a police inspector down a hallway leading to the morgue where he will be asked to identify Sylvie's corpse. Even during this tragic scene, Pascal Garnier can't help himself: he has Fabien tell the inspector he has a cream cake wrapper stuck to his shoe.

Vital Detail - "The inspector rushed off to the toilets, leaving his brand-new notebook and chewed pen behind on the low table." During the police interview, the inspector interrogates Fabien about Sylvie's weekend trip to Dijon. Fabien had absolutely no idea Sylvie has been carrying on an affair with a married man. The inspector can clearly see Fabien is telling the truth. And when the inspector informs the twenty-something young man both his wife and her lover died in a car crash, Fabien asks, in turn, the identity of the married man. Sorry, the inspector replies, he can not divulge that information.

But at that moment Fabien spills his coffee across the table and in the inspector's lap. The inspector excuses himself and heads to the rest room. This leave Fabien time to open the inspector's notebook and record the address of the married man - a critical turning point in the story.

Existential Alienation - "But sooner or later, everyone would have to know. He would have preferred it to be later. The real penance was about to begin. He was going to have to tell the story ten times over, hundreds of times over, thank people, shake people's moist hands, kiss their flaccid, damp cheeks, see distant provincial cousins." Echoes of Monsieur Meursault from Albert Camus' The Stranger. Obliged to deal with death, Fabien has the feeling he's reduced to a fixed, social role having little to do with the dynamics and ongoing struggles of his own inner person.

Friendship and Childhood - "Gilles and Fabien were living in Léo's playground. Their chief occupation consisted of leaning on the windowsill watching the world go by." As a way of helping Fabien recover, friend Gilles insists the new widower stay at his apartment with him and his son (Gilles is separated from his wife). During his stint with Gilles, Fabien gets in touch with his own forgotten ability to do nothing and also, via his interaction with little Léo, his own lost childhood.

New Man; New Life - "As long as he stayed within the perimeter of Rue Charlot, he could pass for a resident of the neighborhood, but when he followed them further afield, he took care to keep his distance." Since he knows her address, Fabien ventures out on new discoveries revolving around Madeleine, the young, blonde, pale-skinned widow of Sylvie's dead lover. New life, indeed.

Pascal Garnier peered deep into the human heart, detecting how emotional damage and grief can bubble up in later years with tragic, even violent, consequences - case in point: The Front Seat Passenger.



Left on his own following Sylvie's death, Fabien has a profound shift of identity. "Fabien felt as if he didn't exist any more, as if Sylvie's disappearance had caused him to disappear as well. Perhaps death was contagious. Or he was morphing into Peter Brady, from H. G. Wells's The Invisible Man, Sylvie's favorite hero."


French novelist Pascal Garnier, 1949-2010

[TBV (on hiatus) · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a funny and brilliant noir!

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagine an episode of Rod Serling's Twilight Zone written by a gifted Frenchman. Not particularly memorable, but wholly original.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

A novella from Pascal Garnier, whom I haven't read before, this is French noir at its best.

After having lost his wife in a car accident, Fabien follows the widow of the man Sylvie died with. He ends up dealing with more than he bargained for.

Garnier shows us characters who appear not to be how you expect them to be, and completely turns your mind with several twists in the unpredictable narrative. The main character is a bit quirky, and instead of grieving, we find him bent on revenge. The mood is dark throughout, with sudden bursts of violence in the end.

After this intriguing thriller I will definitely be exploring more of Garnier's works.


Review copy supplied by publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a rating and/or review.

[JimZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Only 2.5 stars from me for this novel (hence rounding up 3 stars)…which is disappointing because I have really liked the prior novels I have read by Garnier. But by the middle of this novel (or novella at 139 pp) it was getting pretty absurd and then it was off to the races to uber-absurdity, so to speak.

Going into a Garnier novel I think one is allowed to anticipate at the outset that there will be some degree of absurdity or preposterousness in the work. But this was over the top. Also normally I have a creepy sensation of apprehension reading Garnier as his novels progress…like: when is the bad thing going to happen, and what will it be? Because he keeps you in suspense. Well here something bad happens midway though the novel so the apprehension was dissipated somewhat…and then whatever apprehension there was vanished as people were then getting knocked off right and left by a most unlikely character. So I was not too keen on this novel. ☹ But I certainly will not stop reading this master of the noir…I gave 4 stars to ‘Moon in a Dead Eye’, ‘The Panda Theory’, and ‘How’s the Pain?’.

Fabien finds out his wife, Sylvie, who he has fallen out of love with (and vice versa), is dead. Killed in an automobile accident. He also finds out she was not alone in the car. It turns out a man whom she was having an affair with was also killed. Fabien was unaware of the affair. And the novel takes off from there… I have no idea why Fabien purposefully sought out sex with a woman whose husband (now dead) was having an affair with Fabien’s wife (now dead). Why would he, with an unfaithful wife who was now dead, want to have sex with the woman who had an unfaithful husband. Martial, who is also now dead? After all, they were in the same boat (unfaithful mates) – is that the tie that binds? And then Martine and Madeleine having the same husband, Martial? And Martine by novel’s end pretty much kills whoever else is standing. Yeesh!

Reviews:

http://www.complete-review.com/review... (this is a good link because within this review are links to several other reviews of this book, and they all liked it lots…so again I am on the outside looking in. Oh well.)

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2015...

[Claire Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little bit Patricia Highsmith; a little bit Stephen King (think Misery) and very enjoyable. I've never heard of Pascal Garnier before, although he's written more than 60 books. This is a short dark novella that gets rather crazy towards the end, but you have to just go with it and enjoy the ride. It's funny and a bit twisted. Translated from the French by Jane Aitken. Fabien learns that his wife Sylvie, who he was no longer in love with, has died in a car crash. Her lover was in the car with her and also died. Fabien doesn't really grieve, instead he decides to stalk the wife of Sylvie's lover.

[Steven Godin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gallic books have done a brilliant job of publishing most of Garnier's back catalogue for the English reader, and I remember reading three of his slim novels a few years ago and being completely won over by his blend of modern noir, chilling, bone-dry humour, and grim irony. Garnier never cropped up on my GR feeds, and I forgot all about him, until recently, and I thought now is as good a time as any to get back to him, so got hold of a couple more of his books. Short enough to read in one sitting, The Front Passenger Seat turned out to be another dark delight! I look forward to the next one!

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having read a couple of other novellas by Pascal Garnier, decided to try this one next. I would say fans of Stephen King stories would appreciate this French counterpart. The plot here wasn't quite as dramatic as my previous reads, which I suppose makes for a good introduction to Garnier; if, on the other hand, one finds this book a bit "tame" his writing overall strikes me as a bit... edgier.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pascal Garnier’s The Front Seat Passenger is a depressing story about three depressed and depressing characters, each seeking their own revenge for their own reasons. Their revenge plots overlap and collide, with Garnier gradually unveiling how one superficially sane but lonely man becomes infected with an odd but not murderous obsession for revenge, leading him to befriend two also superficially sane women, only for us to learn that they’re even madder, more revenge addled, and more murderous. I’ll never open a freezer again without a apprehension.

The Front Seat Passenger zips along: it’s tightly plotted with no spare words, plot lines, or characters to bog it down. It’s wonderfully satisfying noir, only slightly marred by the absence of a sense of place suffuses Fred Vargas, Virginie Despentes, and of course the great Patrick Modiano.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whoops on me. I had already read this one at the library but didn't mark it here as read. It doesn't really hold up to a second reading. [4 stars for the first, 3 stars for the second]
Garnier was gifted in keeping words to a minimum, arranged for maximum impact. I recall John Grant's evaluation of this theme as a Hitchcock-worthy production, and I must agree. One can't really describe the plot without spoiling for others.
Main man Fabien is one who is deeply weird and unpredictable, yet moves through the landscape of life as a ghost...super gnarly! From the outset, the reader must have sympathy for this character:
"From the moment she had left them when Fabien was five, she was always referred to as Charlotte, never 'Manman.' Fabien had never heard his father say a bad word about her, nor a good word; he simply didn't mention her. Like Dreyfus, he had exiled her to a place in his memory as distant as Devil's Island."
And that is how the tale begins, with Fabien's visit to his father's place to help clear out Charlotte's belongings for a sale after learning of her death. Death then becomes the rhythmic theme of this novella.
Quick read at 139 pages, Gallic paperback
Library Loan

[Paul Dembina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read a fair number of Pascal Garnier's "gallic noir" (a bit of a misnomer really) novels and this is the 1st one I found a little disappointing. Some rather unlikely plot developments lead to unsatisfying denouement

[Raven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that it is probably a given that I am an ardent admirer of the work of the late, lamented Pascal Garnier, with his small, yet perfectly formed, dark slices of fiction that always put the less savoury aspects of the human psyche so succinctly under the microscope. Drawing comparisons to Georges Simenon and Patricia Highsmith, Garnier was a prolific author of more that sixty works, and a true master of the surreal noir thriller. Having previously reviewed The A26, and having also read The Panda Theory, How’s The Pain? and Moon In A Dead Eye, one of my favourite imprints, Gallic Books, have now released The Front Seat Passenger.

As you can see from the synopsis, the premise is simple enough, with a man discovering the infidelity of his wife, and her death occuring in the company of her lover. However, in the spirit of Garnier’s twisted and grimly humorous style, does Fabien merely retreat into a wave of self-pity and grief from the discovery of this affair? No- he seeks retribution by pursuing Martine, the widow of his wife’s lover, and what we bear witness to is a man that is entirely disengaged with the emotions of grief, and hellbent on his own twisted motives for revenge. With his Machiavellian plotting to woo Martine, and extricate her from the overbearing influence of her best friend Madeleine, Garnier produces some singularly absurd moments, that have you laughing and cringing in equal measure. However, this being a trademark example of the grim and disconcerting narratives that Garnier produces, the tables are swiftly turned on the scheming Fabien in a truly surprising fashion.

It is this ability of Garnier to insert the ridiculous and the horrific in fairly normal aspects of life and turns of events that set him so far apart from his contemporaries. His books are slim, but contain an expansive scope of the deepest and most dislikeable characteristics of his protagonists, but not so far removed that they do not strike some sort of chord or recognition from his readers. By focusing on the essential and most destructive aspects of human emotions and employing his style of writing, the familiar is made familiar, where we can recognise our own emotions, but also unfamilliar in the way that his protagonists deal with, and react to, these emotions. Thus, the absurd situations that arise are merely an extension of how some people would react in situations like these, but taken to a whole new existential level, in an effort to resonate with the natural wit and intelligence of his readers. The ordinary is made extraordinary, and our reading pleasure is amplified because of this, punctuated as it is by moments of dark humour, and moral revulsion.

Alluding to the writing style of Garnier himself, these are slim works of genius and little more needs to be said. Fin.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review and I really enjoyed it.

I discovered Pascal Garnier about a year ago through the ebook versions of his short novels published by Gallic Books and I am already a die hard fan. Garnier is first rate. His short novels are compelling, tense, darkly humorous, and dripping with noir atmosphere and characters. They are definitely meant to be finished in one sitting. I just can’t imagine stopping before the end.

I don’t want to give away much of the plot so I will be brief. Our humorously quirky and neurotic protagonist in The Front Seat Passenger has recently become a widower when his wife dies in a car accident. He is confused by the circumstances because the accident occurred far from their home and not in a place that she was supposed to be. He then learns that she was not alone in the car (she was the front seat passenger), so he not only has to deal with her death, which he finds most inconvenient, but also the fact that she was having an affair, which he finds embarrassing. Frankly, he is so odd in his twisted perspective that I found myself alternating between finding him humorous and being disgusted by his shallowness and lack of emotional maturity.

For understandable reasons, he is curious to find out about “the other man;” then for reasons that make sense really only to him, decides stalks that man’s wife. The interaction grows more and more tense and uncomfortable as he gets closer and closer to her. He realizes, as anyone would, that he is treading on dangerous ground and I found myself squirming as potential pitfalls started to crop up everywhere. Not wanting to give away anything, I will say that nothing is as it seems and the story gets darker and darker with each surprise and each unexpected development.

To say this would make an incredible movie is an understatement. Absolutely fantastic classic noir story every bit as tense as Double Indemnity.

5 stars. A classic.

[Liz Barnsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coming March 10th From Gallic.

Translated by Jane Aitken.

Thank you kindly for the review copy.

Fabien and Sylvie both knew their marriage wasn't working. But when Sylvie is involved in a fatal car accident, Fabien is stunned to discover she had a lover who died with her. Harbouring thoughts of revenge, he tracks down the lover's widow, Martine, and begins stalking her. Fabien is desperate to get Martine on her own. And that won't happen until he deals with her protective best friend, Madeleine..

So this is the second book from Pascal Garnier, sadly no longer with us, that I have read - and once more I was struck by the sheer power of the writing, even though he has a wonderful straightforward style about him. It grips you very early on and whilst being extremely intense it is also incredibly easy to read.

In this story Fabien is shocked to discover, after her death, that his wife was keeping secrets from him. Various ironically dark thought processes lead him to a desperate need to track down Martine, with dreams of revenge...but he may be out of his depth. You know the saying "Oh what a tangled web we weave.." ..well that is this book in a nutshell. If there is one thing that Pascal Garnier does with aplomb its irony.

This is not a happy tale - but it is addictive, paced perfectly and a lovely example of noir with a twist that will keep you happily turning the pages until you find out what is ultimately in store for all the characters. I actually grew quite fond of Fabien although he has stunningly bad judgement and you do want to yell at him a lot. Still, its those characters that make a reading experience real and Pascal Garnier also does real very well.

All in all another wonderful little read from an author that will be sadly missed. I am extremely pleased that Gallic is bringing his stories to our shores and kudos to the translator who did such a brilliant job.

Happy Reading Folks!

[Gloria Feit · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pascal Garnier, prize-winning author of over 60 books [of which this was the fourth and last published in the US], was born in Paris in 1949 and passed away in 2010. Having just recently read “Moon in a Dead Eye,” the penultimate book by Pascal Garnier, I should have been prepared for this one, but must admit I was not. I described that book as “strange,” albeit in a good way; as to this one, if I had to use one word, it would be “weird.” But in a good way as well (I think).

One gets some inkling of what is in store on the very first page of the book, when the driver of a car, not identified until near the end of this short tale, is described thusly: “The right hand moved from the steering wheel, caressing the gear lever, as one might the head of a cat, or the handle of a gun.”

It is not a spoiler, as the back page of the book shares this information, to say that Fabien and Sylvie Delorme have a marriage that is no longer the vibrant, loving one it once was, and in the early pages of the book Sylvie dies in a fatal car crash; her “front seat passenger” was her lover, also killed in the crash. Fabien is moved to track down the lover’s widow, Martine, and begins stalking her. What follows ares examples of dysfunctional relationships of every description – marital, parental, etc.

To give just one example of the writing, this is the description of Martine, nearing her 32nd birthday: “She looked like an over-exposed photo, with so little presence that one wondered if she was capable of casting a shadow.” This book, as its predecessor, is a riveting glimpse into another odd world from this author, and is recommended.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

When Fabien's wife Sylvie dies in a car crash, Fabien isn't too devastated: it's been a while since he and Sylvie last felt anything for each other beyond amiable but remote friendship. He's horrified, though, to discover she had a passenger in the car with her who also died, Martial, the married lover with whom she was returning from an assignation. It seems to Fabien that the only way to make things right is for him to track down Martial's widow, the pallid, ineffectual Martine, and seduce her.

In this he succeeds, as we expect him to. But from that point onward, just when we reckon we've heard this story before and know where it's going, the plot becomes increasingly unpredictable.

Which is great for readers of the book but lousy for people trying to talk about it. How can I do so without committing spoilers in all directions?

So all I can sensibly say about The Front Seat Passenger is that Alfred Hitchcock should still be alive in order to film it. This short novel bears all the hallmarks of Golden Age Hitchcock, complete with unlikable protagonists, unlikely humor and sudden plot-shifts. I also very much liked the writing style (as translated by Jane Aitken): it has a readable directness that makes its sudden flashes of acute observation stand out all the more. Here's a single sample:

Martine had a strange little voice that put him in mind of a child learning the recorder.

The book's short enough to be easily read in an evening -- which, since it's hard to put down once started, is what you may very well end up doing.

[Andy Weston · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best yet from Monsieur Garnier, as in his inimitable style he tells the story of a relationship formed after an tragedy. Anyone who has read his books previously will know that there won't be a happy ending. Rather than wait for the inevitable descent into violence Garnier absorbs the reader with twists and turns. His take on noir is the one for me. I find his short books quite addictive. He is the master of his genre, and has totally changed my view of Paris.

A word also for the translator. There is a considerable skill in making this appeal equally if not more to a British audience.

Enjoy it. Or rather, don't - isn't that the idea of noir? Should it not occasionally be repulsive and shocking?

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garnier writes dark psychological suspense and "The Front Seat Passenger" does not disappoint. Reminiscent of Simenon the story features a man whose downfall comes because of a woman. But he is a weak man and his fate is inevitable. Fabien finds out his wife was cheating on him when she dies in a car accident with her lover. Fabien tracks down the man's widow and becomes obsessed with her, stalking her, in hopes of finding some revenge against his wife and the man who was her lover. Once he meets the widow face to face things go further downhill becoming darker and darker until he is trapped. None of the characters is likeable but events keep taking unexpected twists until they each descend into oblivion through their own action or inaction.

[Jenny (Reading Envy) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wee little thriller with more sociopaths to count, easily readable in a sitting, set in France. Infidelity, aloof French grief, and the countryside. What's not to like?

Translated by a UK scholar (noticeable with the use of the word "whilst"), I imagine the language is well-captured. Fragmented sentences, short sections, some characters portrayed in their dialogue while others are only known through Fabien's internal thoughts.

I am very happy to be introduced to this author!

[WJEP · Rating 2 out of 5]

This had a promising setup:

"Your wife wasn’t alone in the car. ... She was with a man who also died in the accident."

But the surviving husband was a dud -- feeble, submissive, bland. He stumbles his way through the story. The actions of the more villainous characters made me wonder "What the heck ... maybe I accidentally skipped a chapter or something."

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another noir gem from Garnier. Literary and sneaky.

[Jure · Rating 5 out of 5]

Intriguing reading, totally unpredictable. Had no idea what our hero's intentions were in the first place and what the hell was he about to do next (that breaking into Martine's house?). Especially the first half is mind blowing with lots of stuff going on. It slows down a bit later and (with a cool twist) becomes almost normal. By normal I mean that Martine's madness is much more straightforward and for some reason easier to understand. If nothing else, her actions leave no doubt about her mental state...

More here (review includes spoilers!):
http://a60books.blogspot.ie/2014/06/l...

[GlenK · Rating 5 out of 5]

Without giving it away, this meticulously-plotted, swiftly-paced (just over 140 pages total) novel can be summed up with: 1) Fabien doesn't relate to Sylvie, 2) Silvie is killed, 3) Fabien begins stalking Martine, 4) Martine is under the thumb of Madeleine. Thus the stage is set for Fabien's descent into quite a piece of hell. Garnier paints poor (you really feel for him), passive Fabien as a classic noir schmuck, and the three women of the piece display varying degrees of icy duplicity. Bleak and nasty and fast, this work reminds me very much of - for its mood - a 1940s film noir and - for its pacing - an early 1930s pre-code melodrama.

[Mary Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabien and Martine are horrible characters, as most of Pascal Garnier’s creations are. But I didn’t find the route they take to their undoing just as entertaining as the insanity described in Too Close to the Edge or Moon in a Dead Eye. Perhaps the initial event sparking off the trip isn’t just as imaginable as in the other two, or maybe there is less humour, or maybe because there are less supporting characters here. A different translator to the other two as well.
Whatever the reason, this remains a good read, the sudden and unexpected reactions of Fabien and Martine to the events which overtake them, like in all Garnier’s novellas, are what make you sit up and take notice.

[Pia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another small-great book by Pascal Garnier.

When I first started reading this book, there was a sense of dèjá vu. A man learns his wife has been killed in an accident; she was a passenger in a car driven by her lover. The widower, Fabien, then decides to stalk and befriend the lover's widow.

The part where the plot is not like any other one is that it was written by Pascal Garnier, a master in describing strange people, with many issues, in strange circumstances. Most of the characters in the books I've read by Garnier are not what you can call "normal".

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Marina Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impossible not to like Pascal Garnier's deceptively simple style, dark humour and deeply flawed characters. Well, perhaps I don't like the characters per se, but you have to read on to see what a mess they will get themselves into.

[Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Late to the party, but loved this! Compact, strange, funny, unpredictable, genre bending, dark, violent and entertaining.

Don't read anything on the cover, don't read the synopsis, don't read the writer quotes, just read the text.

I'm looking forward to the 6 or 7 I still have to read.

[JacquiWine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last year I read so many good books that I struggled to find places for them all on my end-of-year list. One notable book that didn’t quite make the final cut was Pascal Garnier’s Moon in a Dead Eye. I’m a big fan of this French writer’s blend of surreal humour and sense of affinity for life’s outsiders and losers so I’ve been saving The Front Seat Passenger for a rainy day. Like the other Garnier novellas I’ve read, Passenger is a short, sharp slice of noir – ideal for a spare hour or two.

Passenger’s central character is a forty-year-old man, Fabien, who lives in Paris with his wife, Sylvie. At the beginning of the book, we are introduced to Fabien during a visit to his father’s home. Fabien’s mother, Charlotte, has just died, and the news has hit his father hard even though thirty-five years have slipped by since she walked out on them. Fabien’s father is the silent type – closed to the world, keeping everything inside. Fabien’s early life with his father had felt like ‘living underwater.’

As I read this novella, I couldn’t help thinking that these experiences must have played a formative role in shaping Fabien’s character. As you’ll see in a little while, he’s rather odd. This next quote captures a sense of his childhood:

Fabien was the child of two phantoms, with the absence of one and the silence of the other providing his only experience of family. They had each carved out their own isolated little existence, that was all. (pgs. 14-15, Gallic Books)

On his return to Paris, Fabien learns that Sylvie has been involved in a serious car accident – there is a message on his answerphone urging him to call the hospital in Dijon. But rather than contacting the hospital straightaway, Fabien’s immediate instinct is to ‘light a cigarette and go and smoke it naked by the open window’. He’s convinced that Sylvie is dead, but he doesn’t react as one might expect. There is an absence of emotion (or if it’s there, it’s all out of whack). Here’s his first thought:

Shit…I’m a widower now, a different person. What should I wear? (pg. 21)

It gets worse. Sylvie is dead, and Fabien comes out with a very strange response indeed when asked to identify his wife’s body. Forlani is the police inspector:

Forlani spoke to two men in short white coats. They glanced briefly at Fabien and pulled the handle of a sort of drawer. Sylvie slid out of the wall.

‘Is this your wife?’

‘Yes and no. It’s the first time I’ve seen her dead. I mean, the first time I’ve seen a dead body. It’s not at all like a living person.’ (pg 26)

The inspector informs Fabien that Sylvie did not die alone. She was with a married man who also died in the accident, a man whom the police believe was her lover. This information comes as news to Fabien – he knew his marriage had withered in recent years but he had no inkling of Sylvie’s involvement in any affair. Before leaving the morgue, Fabien deliberately creates a distraction, and while the inspector is out of sight, he makes a note of the dead man’s name and address. The man’s name was Martial Arnoult and he lived in Paris with his wife, Martine.

To read the rest of my review, please click here:

https://jacquiwine.wordpress.com/2015...

[Wendy · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading my first Pascal Garnier book last month, this book called to me from NetGalley to download it whilst I was supposed to be uploading a review for another book entirely!

I’m so glad I did, as The Front Seat Passenger is another winning combination of the wry observations of impossibly surreal grim situations and the absence of domestic harmony.

Monsieur Fabien Delorme has a caring, yet distant relationship with his father. Their emotions are fairly constipated, until alcohol is introduced to the conversation encouraging Fabien to spill his guts while his father maintains a bland composure. Bizarrely his deceased mother is referred to by her Christian name, and his father’s display of affection is sparse at best. It’s interesting being a fly on the wall watching them interact from their respective corners.

Following a visit to his father’s house to help him clear out his mother’s things, Fabien returns to an empty home. In the absence of his wife being there to greet him there are three answer phone messages. The first two are innocent enough. But the third is unsettling, as he hears a stranger’s voice telling him there has been an accident and urges him to contact the hospital.

It turns out that even though his beloved Sylvie has been killed in a car crash it’s his world that’s been turned upside down. They didn’t have children. They kept themselves to themselves. So now it was just him and the knowledge that his wife was not alone when she died. He should be able to take comfort in that, but it was such a cruel way to discover that she was having an affair.

Being left without a way to confront her, Fabien makes the unusual decision to focus on stalking the widow of his wife’s lover. He embarks on clandestine methods to get closer to Martine Arnoult, but first he has to get passed her battle-axe friend, Madeleine – a.k.a. the human shield.

Needless to say there’s some top class satirical moments and the spontaneous method of dispatching ‘problems’ as they occur, verging on the unhinged. Stephen King’s ‘Misery’ came to mind at one point, but not everything is as it appears! If one thing is clear it's that Fabien ought to leave dangerous games to the more experienced players.

I’m wowed by the author’s skill of cramming such a vibrant, brilliantly layered world into such a short page span. The terrific one-liners bring clarity to life, death, and the assorted bits in-between. And I’ll hold my hand up. I wasn’t expecting any twist in the tale until one was delivered with precision timing. It's sharp, and very, very clever. (So good in fact I've just purchased two more from the Kindle Store!)

(My thanks to the publisher for allowing me to download this title from NetGalley for review.)

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I haven't read anything by Pascal Garnier before but this had been languishing in paperback on my TBR for quite a long time before I noticed it pop up on Netgalley, so I thought why not bump it up and give it a go.

Well, what a little gem! It's quite short so easily read in a spare couple of hours, which makes a nice change and the translation is excellent as it appears to maintain the French "feel" to the book.

Full of unlikeable psychopaths, written in a tense style with short sentences and abrupt endings, this is a really enjoyable, slightly odd and somewhat gruesome read, a combination that I have discovered I really like!

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me an electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.