Sheena Patel, Look for the fan – Liberation

Obsession and rehearsal are available on several levels, in I’m a fan. The heroine relentlessly thinks of the man she covets, which she frequents from time to time but which is not free, and the fragments that make up the novel often count, in their first lines, the following expression: « The man I want to be ». He does not want her, is almost not described, has no first name, is neither good nor evil. This man could not be the same from one fragment to another. He is married and refuses that his existence will be upset. There « fan » Maybe is also another woman from one fragment to another. What is fun with the beating drum, in her first novel, the British Sheena Patel, is the desire never satisfied to have what is in the garden next door; The thirst to have what belongs to the others, or to that which we follow on Instagram. Surrounded by a pink jacket which gives it a joyful and light look, translated by Marie Darrieussecq, I’m a fan is of those books which capture very well some of the faults of the time – consumerism, individualism, inconstancy – and which present them in a sarcastic, not too caricatural light. The title, the same in French as that of the original version released in 2022, is also symptomatic of our world which does not give in the nuance. It’s all or nothing. The action takes place in London, in more or less trendy places: a suburban train wagon o