The Rendezvous - Hardcover

The first love affair most of us have is with our mothers. In The Rendezvous, 18-year-old Louise sits in the Parisian cafe where her divorced parents met, whiling away a long, fruitless wait for her mother, Alice, by replaying scenes from their lives. Gorgeous, absentee Alice is a supreme narcissist and completely unconvincing liar who dabbles in hard drugs and spends time in prison. Though Louise affects a dispassionate cool as she conjures her up, her descriptions are those of a jilted suitor still longing for the lover who razed her heart. Alice is enticingly wild and generous, too, a horrendous parent but a shining chimera who goes up in flames with a grin. Translated from French and billed as a roman à clef that is "part memoir, part fiction," this debut novel by Justine Levy, the daughter of French philosopher Bernard Henri Levy, is slight in scope but addictive and elegant, even as the scenes inscribed rival those in Bosch's paintings of hell.

The Rendezvous is a beautiful and evocative first novel that blurs all lines between memoir and fiction. In a painfully sentimental journey, Louise, a sophisticated eighteen-year-old Parisian student, sits in a cafe awaiting the arrival of her long-absent mother, an aging hippie and former fashion model.

As the hours pass and Louise waits, she reaches deeper and deeper into her store of memory, recalling the early failure of her parents' marriage. Louise remembers how brief and unfulfilling meetings with her mother have punctuated her safe and secure life with her father, a world-renowned conductor. Carefully walking the balance between anticipation and fear, Louise meditates upon the chaos of her mother's life, a life of decadence, drugs, and irresponsibility.

Coming face-to-face with the powerful love she feels for her mother, Louise wryly acknowledges the complexity of a relationship filled with countless letdowns and unwavering devotion. Written with a wisdom that transcends age and the wit and savvy of a true survivor, The Rendezvous is a poignant examination of the transition to young adulthood and the often startling awareness of a parent's fallibility.