31. The Handmaid of Desire

by John L'Heureux (264 pgs)

Rating: 4

Olga: A semi-mysterious, semi-divine, semi-ruthless, and semi-kind character of undefined origins and with obscure goals. A literary theorist invited to teach at a California university for a semester and quickly ends up the puppet-master of the petty intrigues of the department. The persistent question of the book: is Olga a character in a book that we are reading or is she, in fact, the author writing from within the pages? Or perhaps she is simply a deluded and eccentric narrator. It's impossible to tell.

I have to admit, The Handmaid of Desire had me hooked in under 10 pages. The concept is inherently intriguing but the writing was easy to follow and flowed well supporting the bizarreness of the plot without intruding. Truly, a well written book. As far as content: I think the plot was interesting and a touch of magical realism made for a invigorating spice. In fact, I think without it, the plot would have come off as a bit drab. I am interested to read more of L'Heureux's books...and also possibly check out the creative writing program in Stanford.