Name: PAUL.
ISBN: 9781783786350

DAISY. LAFARGE

PAUL.

Daisy Lafarge

A sharp, timely debut about a young woman’s toxic relationship with an older man and her battle to free herself from the suffocating expectation to be “good” When personal scandal forces her to leave Paris, Frances, a young British graduate student, travels to southern France one summer to volunteer on a farm. Almost as soon as she arrives, she is pulled into a relationship with the farm’s enigmatic owner, Paul, a well-traveled older artist. Alone in a foreign country, drawn into his orbit, and eventually tangled up in his sheets, Frances starts to lose herself in Paul’s easy, experienced charm. Yet over the course of three intense weeks, as she discovers more about Paul and the people surrounding him, she realizes that she’s caught in an emotional battle of wills that threatens to stifle her voice and crush her autonomy. Coming to terms with what’s happening to her and wresting control from an older man with dark secrets of his own are at the heart of this compelling, unsettling novel. By turns the story of how a modern woman finds the inner strength to regain her sense of self and a fascinating exploration of the power dynamics between men and women, Paul is a deeply human novel that holds a mirror up to many of the issues that people confront today.

A Novel

Paul

armoni mayes

Overall rating is 4.5 stars, but may eventually be 5 stars if i continue to think about it later. If you enjoyed Thirst for Salt or The Idiot , you will be a fan of Paul by Daisy Lafarge. 

Paul follows a young 22 year old graduate student named Francis who fled Paris for reasons unknown to the reader besides that it has to do with her professor, the elusive A.B. She has applied to work on a farm for a week in BeneBio with a 40-year old man named Paul, to which they quickly form a friendship and eventually a relationship.

Due to the age difference, and Paul’s domineering personality, the relationship quickly turns…slightly toxic. I really felt for Francis because at some point she definitely realizes that she may have made a mistake being in this strange dynamic with this older man but is unsure how to navigate leaving it. A huge twist at the end that I was not expecting had me reeling, and is why I am pondering giving it 5 stars.

PAUL.

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