Adèle is a wonderful book. But calling it wonderful feels a little worrisome because the prem­ise is as disturbing as it gets. Adèle Robinson, the titular character, is addicted to sex—loveless sex with just about any man who isn’t her husband. Her husband, on the other hand, is a devoted family man who doesn’t care much about sex. When Adèle conceives on their first try, “he was relieved that he didn’t have to wear out the body of the woman he loved by ‘trying’ over and over again.” So she picks up men in bars and bistros and hospital elevators and uses her best friend as alibi for the escapades.

 

On surface, 35-year-old Adèle seems to have it all. She is married to a handsome surgeon, is a suc­cessful journalist, and has a son she adores. And it’s not that Adèle enjoys cheating on her husband. She just can’t help it. Violent sexual release is what Adèle seeks for reasons even she doesn’t fully understand—perhaps to escape the monotony that comes from comfort because of her family’s money that “smells of work, of sweat and long nights spent at the hospital”.

 

Adèle is a difficult character to like. She is lazy and shallow, and seems to have little to no passion for anything in life except, of course, sex

 

Translated into English following the success of Lullaby, a story about a nanny who kills her young charges, Adèle was actually French-Moroccan author Leila Slimani’s first published novel. In various interviews, Slimani has said she writes about topics that fascinate her and by doing so she also wants to explore characters she doesn’t understand. Adèle is a story about women, what’s expected of them, and how their desires are often suppressed by it.

 

But Adèle is a difficult character to like. She is lazy and shallow, and seems to have little to no passion for anything in life except, of course, sex. It’s the crisp narration that keeps you hooked to this slim novel. The writing is sparse and Slimani only tells you what you absolutely need to know. She gives you a bit of a backstory, about teenage Adèle see­ing prostitutes that made her curious about sex, but there are no elaborate descriptions and details. Also, there is no moralizing from the author either. She doesn’t tell you how to feel or what to think about her nym­phomaniac character. Some readers will applaud Adèle while some will be appalled by her. But, either way, we will all think about her for a long time to come.

 

Book: ADÈLE

Genre: Fiction

Author: Leila Slimani

Translated into Englishby Sam Taylor

Publisher: Penguin Books

Published: January 15, 2019

Pages: 240, Paperback