What are you reading? Paul by Daisy Lafarge

 

Source: goodreads

Noelia's contribution

REVIEW

Paul by Daisy Lafarge is the last novel I've read this summer. Readers may assume the main character is male based on the book's title. Nevertheless, the heroine of this story is a young female, Frances.

Frances is a 21-year-old British woman. Due to her involvement in a scandal, she has to abandon her research project on a medieval book in Paris. Frances decides to take a break in an eco farm called Noa Noa in rural south France. When she arrives at this location, she encounters Paul, the charming, seductive and domineering farm owner.

Readers will get to know Paul through Frances's experience. A male, sometimes magnetic and other disagreeable.

I have to admit that I am torn between recommending it or not. The cornerstone of this story is the domination, manipulation and patriarchy in a relationship in which the significant age difference plays an important role. Nonetheless, the story is sometimes predictable, and the character of Frances is a bit dull. Moreover, there are a lot of secondary characters which do not provide anything to the story. 

Source: daisylafarge.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Daisy Lafarge was born in Hastings in the South of England. She works for Granta, LitHub, Wellcome Collection Stories, Art Review, TANK Magazine, and The White Review, writing ecology, art and literature essays and reviews. 

Her first novel, Paul, was published in 2021, winning the Betty Trask Award. One year before, she won the Scottish Poetry Book of the Year award for her collection, "Life Without Air."

More interesting links about the author

> GRANTA - Daisy Lafarge Interview

YouTube - T.S. Eliot Prize - Daisy Lafarge Talks about her work