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the complete review - fiction

Bad Eminence

by
James Greer

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

B+ : very stylish and enjoyable wild ride

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "Once the rollicking narrative has caught up with itself, the novel implodes in real-time. It becomes increasingly obvious that transgressive, S&M fantasies from the Robbe-Grillet book Vanessa was translating at the beginning have been contaminating the rest of her life, and that her world is now awash with simulacra and doppelgängers. Hilarious, exhilarating and mind-blowing, Bad Eminence is this year’s cult classic." - Andrew Gallix, Irish Times
  
  
• "Gleefully masquerading as an action thriller, it's a wild trip through language, literature and translation, which may sound a bit niche, but Greer is out to persuade you that reading is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. (...) Bad Eminence is definitely a novel with a beginning, a middle and an end, though not necessarily in that order. (...) Borges would have approved the impish circularity. Bad Eminence is not for all; some might reject its self-referential brilliance. I'll be rereading, for the fun of it. And the margin notes." - Lee Langley, The Spectator
  
  
• "(I)t is all very Thomas Pynchon, the title of whose debut novel resounds in Vanessa’s nickname: “V”. And, as in Pynchon, Bad Eminence displays a byzantine vocabulary that will have you reaching for the dictionary on just about every other page. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, Greer’s novels reek of the thesaurus in a way that Pynchon’s never do. The problem is the voice. Funny to start with, Vanessa’s first person is so flippant and wisecracking that it steamrolls every attempt at sincerity and makes the big words and metafictional games seem like nothing more than what they are." - George Cochrane, Times Literary Supplement

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       Bad Eminence is a book of doublings, beginning with narrator Vanessa Salomon, who presents herself as a twin, with an identical sister, Alexandra, who is two minutes older. Born in a trilingual household -- "French, English and money" -- Vanessa is a literary translator -- though fortunately so comfortably well-off that she's not dependent on this work for the income. (As she notes: "There's no money in it, so it's good I don't need money".)
       Her sister, under the name Angelique de Saxe, is the far more famous of the two, an international movie star -- a career and success Vanessa feels she deserved, and which she maintains her sister stole from her.
       Vanessa also has a pet notion that she hasn't been able to put in practice yet, the amusing idea that: "a book should be translated before it's been written". The story then is basically set in motion when she is contacted by the: "American editor of a French writer who is absolutely Not Michel Houellebecq", who wants to meet her. She meets this man who is absolutely Not Michel Houellebecq -- calling him H -- and then H2, as this incredibly successful writer also leads a doubled life, the one a front-man, to do the readings and other public duties that the *real* writer would rather not be bothered with.
       H2 has a proposition for Vanessa: that she translate his next book before he has written it. And, of course that book turns out to be this one, with H2 observing, when Vanessa asks why he thinks she would undertake this project for him, that: "You're already doing it", as the novel loops on itself, telling the story, in real time, of its creation. Keeping up the doubling-theme, the novel is also presented as its own re-telling, as Vanessa invites neighbor Juno Temple to her apartment early on and reads the novel to her, to get her reaction and input .....
       Early on, Vanessa already warned (Juno and the reader): "I hope you're not expecting a story in the trad sense", but even as the novel circles in on itself (in its beginning is its end, etc.) it does begin reasonably straightforwardly. It seems simply to be the story of a translator being commissioned to write this work -- and, for a while, Vanessa more or less goes along with it, even if the conditions imposed on her can be rather strict. But even before the story gets truly outlandish, it already loops and strays about in smaller ways.
       There's the (re-)translation (another doubling ...) of Alain Robbe-Grillet's Souvenirs du triangle d'or she's doing on spec. -- and which the new novel H claims to be writing sounds identical to. Echoes of the Robbe-Grillet novel can be found in Bad Eminence, from the way they handle the literary representation of reality to the very present role of the narrator. But Bad Eminence goes far beyond this one work in leaning on literary reference -- from its title (taken from Paradise Lost) to the mention of: "Fiat Lux, whose notebooks were published in 2006 under the title Artificial Light" (so the title of author Greer's 2006 novel).
       Then there's also Vanessa's former boyfriend, Thomas Early, whose suicide Vanessa continues to feel guilty about; extracts from his notebooks are also featured here. (Thomas committed suicide by jumping off of Vanessa's building, and, in keeping with the doubled-motif, there is a second suicide associated with the place.)
       The novel also includes numerous photographs, as well as recipes for various cocktails Vanessa enjoys -- presented as 'sponsored content' (and indeed one hopes Greer and the publisher are being well-remunerated for these), and each featuring Singani 63.
       Finally, there is also a 'Help Desk' appendix, to which readers are referred to already at the opening of the book: "Should you have any difficulty in untangling any of the following, the management recommends you check in with the Help Desk". Here Greer offers answers to some of the questions readers may have about things and people mentioned in the novel -- 'What is the nouveau roman ?' 'Who is Eve Babitz ?' 'What is the point of Los Angeles ?' -- though they are clarifying to very different extents (in some cases, not at all). As suggested in one of the responses: "What you do with these answers is your own business".
       It all makes for a very heady mix, spinning entertainingly if ultimately perhaps too far. What easily sustains the novel, however, is the sharp, sprightly narrative, and especially that voice.
       As Vanessa points out:

Look, I do love words, that should be obvious by now, but what I love even better is showing off, which is why I will always pick the obscure or antiquated or even just flat out wrong word whenever possible if I think there's a shot it'll make me sound smarter than I am.

- M.A.Orthofer, 22 June 2022

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Links:

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• See Index of Contemporary American fiction

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About the Author:

       James Greer is an American writer and musician.

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© 2022 the complete review

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