Summer Reads: The Margot Affair

This is part of my Summer Reads series where I’ll be reviewing a series of “not just cookbooks”.

This week’s pick for Summer Reads is a moody coming-of-age story set in Paris that already has a lot of hype (I’m late to the party, yes!) – it was a New York Times Editor’s Choice (it was released in the summer of 2020). I’ve also attended a virtual talk with the author Sanaë Lemoine and I fell in love with her charming, articulate, smart and sweet personality, so when I started to read it, I really hoped I’d love it as much as I wanted to! When a book comes along and you don’t read it until it’s already got a huge reputation, it’s hard to go in with no preconceived notions but this is what I tried to do with The Margot Affair.

From the publisher:

Margot Louve is a secret: the child of a longstanding affair between an influential French politician with presidential ambitions and a prominent stage actress. This hidden family exists in stolen moments in a small Parisian apartment on the Left Bank.

It is a house of cards that Margot—fueled by a longing to be seen and heard—decides to tumble. The summer of her seventeenth birthday, she meets the man who will set her plan in motion: a well-regarded journalist whose trust seems surprisingly easy to gain. But as Margot is drawn into an adult world she struggles to comprehend, she learns how one impulsive decision can threaten a family’s love with ruin, shattering the lives of those around her in ways she could never have imagined.

Exposing the seams between private lives and public faces, The Margot Affair is a novel of deceit, desire, and transgression—and the exhilarating knife-edge upon which the danger of telling the truth outweighs the cost of keeping secrets.

I won’t go into the plot here more than the publisher’s blurb because saying too much would give too much of the plot away. I will say that I expected this book to be a lot more about the public scandal of the “secret” daughter of a prominent Minister and famous actress but, in fact, it looks more at Margot and her complex coming-of-age. There are a number of plotlines in play here – Margot’s relationships with her father (and his new wife), her mother, her school friends, a journalist and his wife – and sometimes, it just seems like “how could the universe possibly put more on the poor Margot?” She manages to navigate this difficult age (and pass her Bac exams, no less) with awkward grace and, yes, she makes some impulsive decisions which have much further reaching consequences than she could possibly have imagined. More than once, just when you think things are settling down and Margot is making peace with her lot in life, something unexpected takes place and boundaries and plotlines shift again.

This book feels like a French film, you know, the ones you watch where you think “What was that about? Everything and nothing.” The types of films where extraordinary events take place in ordinary lives. The absolute “normalness” of Margot’s life (aside from the fact that she is a love child of two famous figures) and the detailed descriptions of her daily routines, her meals… sometimes makes it feel like there’s nothing actually “happening” yet at the end of the novel, we can appreciate that every action, every plot twist, every detailed description of the day-to-day were deliberate. It’s a read rich in details; descriptive and evocative prose that might not work from the keyboard of a different writer. It also reads like a French novel in the languishing way French novels sometimes are, even though it’s written in English (the French translation has since been released). It’s a page turner in a very different sense than a typical beach read might be. I read huge chunks of this in single sittings, simply because it was such a pleasure to read.

A remarkable debut novel from a talented storyteller. I can’t wait to see what she does next (actually she’s working on a cookbook with food writer Olga Massov, called Holy Sheet – a cookbook of 100 recipes that celebrates the versatility of the sheet pan! This releases in 2023).

 

Buy The Margot Affair on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store geographically closest to you). Or, for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository.

Please note: This post contains affiliate links. I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.  This post also contains affiliate links from The Book Depository. This means that if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price (at no extra cost to you). Thank you in advance!

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