Do Not Touch

by Eric Laurrent

When French mafioso Oscar Lux saved Clovis Baccara from killing himself, he became the boss and something of a mentor to Clovis. Twenty years later, it is no surprise that Clovis is named best man when Oscar decides to settle down and get out of the business. Fulfilling his role as second-hand man, Clovis is entrusted with the job of guarding Oscar's new bride when Oscar is taken into police custody for embezzlement and racketeering on the day after his wedding. Alone on his boss's honeymoon in Los Angeles with Oscar's incredibly attractive new wife, Clovis tries his hardest to adhere to the one rule he has given himself, the rule which gets harder to heed as each moment passes: do not touch.

Genres: Literature, Fiction, French Literature, France

131 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2002

Reviews

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ah--there aren't any reviews of this book yet--okay. This is a real good novel, though four stars is grade inflation (GoodReads doesn't offer half-star qualifiers, apparently--it's a 3.5-star book, somewhere in the neighborhood of a B+). It's the story of a high-ranking mob boss's right-hand man, who's charged with watching his boss's new bride when the boss winds up in jail on his wedding night. The writing is erudite (i.e. lots of big words) and inventive but the book as a whole is a pretty quick read. In some ways I wish it hadn't ended where it did--Laurrent was going in a neat unresolved-tension direction, which would've been simultaneously maddening and great--but that said, the ending clicks satisfyingly.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ebullitons, steatopygic, diaeresis, valetudinarian, adamantine; if words were objects, these would have been on Savonarola's bonfire!
Driven more by baroque description than actual plot, Laurrent creates an over-the-top comic romance (ménage à trois) destined for tragedy.

[Dominique · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je me demande si l'auteur fait volontairement preuve de pédantisme en écrivant dans chaque phrase un mot "alambiqué" de la langue française et en étalant sa culture ou si c'est juste sa manière d'écrire....Bref, je me suis surprise à ne plus lire l'histoire mais à attendre son (très) bon mot!