Book Review: "Adèle" Leïla Slimani

I don't normally do reviews of books that I don't like but I see that sometimes, you need to give your opinion even when you don't think the same thing as everyone else. From what I have read about this book, it is mostly good reviews - and I'm taking nothing away from that. There are people out there that have definitely enjoyed this book and I am not going to argue with them about it. When it comes to a review though, I feel like I have to be honest with you about what I personally thought of it. This does not mean avoid the book, this does not mean hate the book and this does not mean that you shouldn't think for yourself. This simply means, here is my opinion and check out the book to see if you think the same way or not. Hopefully you can understand.

I found many disadvantages when reading this book entitled: Adèle by Leïla Slimani. This came as a shock to me since I really enjoyed her book The Perfect Nanny. I normally enjoy Slimani's 'less is more' writing style and her ability to add almost a dark irony to the writing such as: a character's own actions coming back to smack them in the face. However, I felt like it didn't work in this book mostly because of the fact the storyline was very borrowed.

Now, if you're like me and you love movies, you might recognise that the storyline to Adèle is very, very strangely similar to that of Luis Bunuel's Belle De Jour - without, obviously, the prostitution. Even the fact that the husband has an accident is very similar. This felt a bit lazy to me and to be honest, when I think of the storyline to Belle De Jour, the one thing you think is that it requires some sort of flowery, philosophical writing because of the subject of the malcontent and the existential boredom it is trying to portray. Adèle simply does not do that. Instead, when going for the 'less is more', it tends to forget itself and simply goes from place to place, from person to person, without a single look into existential dread. This means that the writing can come of as bland and the characters, unrelatable and unlikable.

The second thing I didn't enjoy very much was the way the story was laid out to me. Very short chapters, things constantly moving, no time for reflection and most of all, a cast of characters where I could not maintain an attachment to any single one. Adèle herself was flawed and often ungrateful. Her backstory of working at the newspaper made her unlikable from the outset. Her husband, Richard, seems distant and unrealistic for the type of man that he is. Adèle's entire personality is made out of the face that she is a 'bored housewife' and yet, that is not explored in nearly enough detail in comparison to the sordid affairs that she has with other men. Whereas, when it comes to Richard, there is some sort of hyperfixation on to how bad he is, as if this seems to justify the actions of his wife. The question here is whether Richard's character is as realistic and as three dimensional as we are made to believe. The three-dimensional nature is always told to us, but his actions and words don't seem to reflect it. I question the writer's choices of character development through cause and effect.

I don't tend to enjoy books where there is no stop and reflect time. I prefer these lengthy internal monologues that a character has with themselves. This doesn't happen in this book and it is really a shame because it could've pulled the novel out of a bad place in terms of its concept and characters.

In conclusion, I'm not saying don't read the book and I would definitely recommend The Perfect Nanny by the same author as it is a lot better. I found this book to be perplexing because I know Slimani can write better than this.