Extremely well written but dark plotline. Maybe you have to be French...

Another small triumph from Pascal Garnier. This time he turns his attention to what seems a safe topic – a gated retirement community in the sun. A small group of retirees move there to enjoy the rest of their lives. Only this being Pascal Garnier things don’t work out quite as they are hoping. It all starts so well, but in a few short pages events begin to spiral out of control. Quirky, darkly comic, unpredictable and bleak, this short book packs a lot into its pages, and is both immensely readable and frighteningly realistic.

Thank you Net Galley. A macabre tale, humorous in parts, which questions the middle class way of life and plays on their fear of the lower classes. It uses the process of aging to describe how modern society has turned the natural order of life into something to be avoided/feared/kept at bay. A disturbing and engrossing read.

When Martial and Odette move to a newly built retirement village in the south of France they are the first to arrive. They are eagerly awaiting their new neighbors, wondering who will move in next. Initially, all is well when Maxime and Marlène arrive. But will a retirement paradise become a retirement hell? Only Garnier will tell.

This books is short but brilliant. It manages to say so much about the human condition. The characters are pitch perfect, the atmosphere moves from light to dark and the location is telling. If this is any indication of Pascal Garnier's other work, I can't wait to read more.

If you like your humour dark and fuelled by a savage turn of phrase, this short book will most likely suit your needs perfectly.

In this short novel Pascal Garnier turns his attentions to the elderly and those who are acquainted with his style realise that nothing good can come of Martial and Odette Sudre move to a gated retirement village.
Odette is keen on the idea of living a life-like being on holiday each day of the year whereas Martial is a little more circumspect

All those years spent doggedly accumulating a thousand little habits from which to spin a cosy cocoon of existence on first-name terms with the newsagent, butcher and baker, going to the market on Saturday morning and taking the Sunday stroll up to Mont Valerien… Then one by one, their neighbours had retired to the Loire valley, Brittany, Cannnes… or the cemetery.

But as Odette becomes seduced by talk of a clubhouse and a pool the pair move in. The pair were the first of the residents to move into the village and the winter months was a bit of a lonely one as well as a time to acclimatise.

For the moment, it was closed, and they had not yet met nor even caught sight of the social secretary. Not that Martial was overly concerned. In fact, he was somewhat dreading the opening of the clubhouse. He had no desire to take part in pancake-tossing competitions with people he did not know.

I liked Martial!

After a long winter with Odette buying items for the new house and cooking culinary surprises they are keen to form a welcoming committee when a new couple move in; Maxime and Marlene Node, finally instead of imagining the new neighbours they could meet them for real! Perhaps mindful of the dreary winter they soon share food, drink and outings together. And then a new single woman is rumoured to be moving into the complex and Maxime for one is keen to impress.

Maxime was striking toreador poses. Chest puffed out, belly sucked in, fists clenched beside his hips, he held his breath for long enough to tell himself he still looked pretty good for a man his age. As his muscles relaxed, the skin sagged on his hunched skeleton like an oversized garment. He shrugged his shoulders and began to shave.

Léa moves in, and her new inquisitive neighbours show up on her doorstep as soon as the removal men left keen to see how their new neighbour would fit into the community. With savage humour Garnier exposes each of the characters for the shallow beings they are, have always been, the difference being, in real life there are distractions from yourself, in a gated community with a scarcity of people, the owners of these shallow characteristics become more aware of them, as well as being irritated by those of others.

A thoroughly enjoyable look at snobbery and aging while you can’t fail to miss the underlying suspense, the feeling that something awful is about to befall these poor misguided folk. To find out what that is, you’ll have to read the book for yourself!

I am very grateful to the publishers Gallic Books who gave me a copy of this book which I exchange for this, my honest opinion and have to praise the skill of the translator, Emily Boyce, who made me forget that it wasn’t originally written in English.

Other Books I’ve Read by Pascal Garnier

Boxes The A26

Garnier is an acquired taste: eclectic, sometimes strange, oddly compelling and unlike anything else currently being written. This is another short novel with which draws us into its own strange world. I sometimes find the writing (or translation) a little flat, lots of telling rather than showing, but somehow the story doesn't let us go till it's done. Recommended, but this probably isn't for everyone.

So the main guy just went insane and calm at the same time...what does that mean? I don't know, but this is how the story was. I can explain it in the above line, but what's the meaning of either the story or the line? Simply put, I don't know.

4.5 stars

OK, I admit it: I lied. When I reviewed Pascal Garnier's The A26, I said that next up would be Boxes, also translated by Melanie Florence, but it just didn't sound as deliciously dark as Moon in a Dead Eye. The latter proved to be just as satisfying as it sounded. Garnier had a remarkable ability to get to the dark underbellies of everyday people in a way which feels so organic to the characters that not only the reader, but the characters themselves are surprised by the depths to which they willingly sink. Emily Boyce's translation was beautiful, with none of the incongruities which so distracted me in Florence's take on The A26.

Literary noir seems to be making quite a comeback, with Akashic's Noir Series anthologies leading the charge. None of Garnier's work is included in the two French anthologies thus far (Paris Noir and Marseille Noir), however, so kudos once again to Gallic Books for bringing his unique voice to the attention of English-speaking readers.

I received a free copy of Moon in a Dead Eye through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This a further example of a book that reads at least as well in its translation as in the original. It conveys the sensitivities and nuances of the story expertly and it is a delight (I use the word advisedly)to read. Sad in its way, funny in parts, it probably strikes a note with most readers. It is an easy and quick read. Try it!

Being the weird goings-on in a retirement complex – a gated community at first only inhabited by one couple and the live-in gatekeeper and concierge, all wondering who else might join them. The fact that there are only seven named characters present shows this is another of Garnier's claustrophobic little pieces of weird life, and it's one of the better ones. The humour when it comes along is obvious and strong, so is the commentary about how bizarre modern life here can be. It might leave the audience with a little too much salt to pinch when it comes to all the characters' foibles – spending months swatting away imaginary flies, for instance – but it makes for a very black look at life in what ends up an ironically sunny place. Garnier's disposition could hardly ever have been called that, but his oeuvre is certainly one to dip into on a regular basis.

The joys of ageing...

When their city neighbourhood begins to change and all their elderly friends gradually retire to quieter places, or die, Odette and Martial decide it's time to buy a little retirement home in a gated community. Odette is keen to move, Martial less so. The community is newly built and Odette and Martial are the first couple to move in. Early impressions are hampered by the constant rain while, until more people move in, the swimming pool and clubhouse remain closed. But there is a caretaker, though given his creepiness that's a bit of a mixed blessing. However, things perk up a bit when another couple and then a single woman move in, and the clubhouse is finally opened complete with a social secretary to provide a bit of fun. Thrown together in this isolated place, all the residents quickly become friends. But then the gypsies arrive...

I've had a bit of a mixed journey with Pascal Garnier so far. I enjoyed Boxes, loved The A26, and sadly wasn't very taken with this one at all. It follows the same kind of format as the others – set up the characters, put them in a slightly odd, isolated situation, then make some terrible things happen to them. The writing is as good as ever, the quirky characterisation is great and there's the same vein of humour, growing increasingly blacker as the novella progresses. Perhaps I've just read them too closely together, but I felt this one was rather like painting by numbers.

The first bit of the book is great. The description of this couple trying to settle into their new lives rings very true. Martial in particular misses the busyness of his old home, where he knew everybody and only had to walk down the street to meet acquaintances. Now he finds it hard to find anything to fill his days. The story of their trip to the beach is a glorious piece of blackly comic writing – the wind at their back as they walk giving them a sensation of energy and vitality, till they have to turn and come back against the same wind whipping away their breath and leaving them shattered and exhausted. It's a great picture of people trying to come to terms with the fact that ageing is taking its toll on what they're physically able to do, and nicely satirical about all those pictures of happy, energetic retirees in the sunshine that populate brochures for these kinds of communities.

Unfortunately, when the horrors begin, they simply didn't ring true for me. The actual events didn't justify the paranoia and, avoiding spoilers, the character change of the person who does the deed was too sudden and not well enough supported. The whole thing also turned on a plot device that I couldn't believe in – namely, that if the electricity got cut off the electric gates to the community couldn't be opened manually. There is also a piece of totally unnecessary and gruesome animal cruelty, which never works for me. And finally, the ending depends on such a hugely unlikely coincidental event that it lost any remaining credibility.

I know many people have loved this as one of Garnier's best, so I'm certainly willing to assume that the problems I encountered with it are a result of too recent comparison with the others I've read. Certainly his writing, aided by an excellent translation by Emily Boyce, is as good as ever and I did enjoy the early part of the novella a good deal. But the plot didn't work for me this time round, I'm afraid. I have two other novellas of his on my Kindle, but I think I'll leave a good long gap this time to try to avoid that feeling of sameness that I found with this one. Tricky, when I'm being rather negative, but I do still recommend this – I suspect with these novellas everyone will find they have different favourites, but all the ones I've read so far have been well worth the reading, especially if you're more skilled at suspending disbelief than I am. 3½ stars for me, so rounded up.

NB This book was provided for review by the publisher, Gallic Books.