Introduce a woman, Elodie Lavelle. Older, worldly, above all beautiful, with great bones, sharp teeth and a wit to match.
Place them in a dismal, grubby railway station on the Spanish-French border, where the only train to Paris is entirely booked.
What follows can best be described as the young man's sentimental education in its broadest sense. They take a taxi together to Biarritz, and the adventure begins.
After an eventful evening and a night together they travel to Paris. Hilarious at times, sad too, and sometimes slightly shocking, the story grips from the beginning. Elodie is a hedonist with a rich husband who conveniently never appears, but his credit card is in her purse, and she uses it lavishly.
The dialogue is sharp, and the changes in himself the young man experiences are both touching and realistic; and it becomes clear Elodie herself is changed, perhaps more than she expects. This is a remarkable and sophisticated piece of writing for a young man in his early 20s. Sebastian Hampson is a writer to keep an eye open for.
- Margaret Bannister is a retired Dunedin psychotherapist and science teacher.
