Electrico W
Le Tellier (Enough about Love, 2011) is a quadruple threat: writer, journalist, food critic, and mathematician. But threat is not quite the right intensifier to describe him. Nor should one take his fifth novel too seriously or regard it as lightweight, though it is humorous and reads effortlessly. Vincent Balmer, lovable loser, is our protagonist and narrator. Photographer Antonio Flores, a Lisbon native, joins him there to cover the trial of a serial killer for a French newspaper. The novel covers nine days in nine chapters, each named for a different character. While detailing his failures at love and Antonio’s successes, Vincent is translating a book of short stories and writing a historical novel. Many threads overlap: Le Tellier means for us to appreciate the gentle vibrations of this net woven from distinct narrative tropes, capturing reflections and feelings, accumulating and preserving details. Noticing a couple getting soaked in a downpour, Vincent remarks, “Watching them, I succumbed to the all-encompassing amazement I always feel about lives that are not my own.” --Michael Autrey