A review by elenajohansen
All My Friends by Marie NDiaye

1.0

Much like the other NDiaye book I tried to read, I couldn't connect with this. Especially here, in short story format, so much is elliptical. I read the first story assuming a female narrator, both because the author is a woman and so am I, so with no other context...and then, on page 6, I finally found a pronoun! The narrator was masculine! And that actually made the story creepier and more off-putting, since it was all about him trying to interfere with his maid's (and former student's) marriage, on behalf of a friend who was also a former student. If I understood the plot correctly--and I'm honestly not sure I did--it was incredibly vile, making me uncomfortable. Why would I want to read a story from that perspective? What should I feel but contempt for a man who would blatantly (but ineffectively) set out to destroy someone's marriage, and not even for himself, but for someone else?

That set the tone for my entire experience. I was never quite sure who was meant when a character/narrator was referring to someone else. I'm glad this was short, because I had a truly difficult time matching pronouns to characters. And I never felt anything but discomfort, contempt, or disgust toward any of the characters. I'm not a fan of the "awful people doing awful things" school of literature.