GOAT SONG - Chantal Pelletier

Depressed doesn't do justice to the dripping, sad, obsessed melancholy of the magnificently complex Maurice Laice (More is less just being one of his nicknames).  Maurice is just one character that stands out from the page, his boss - she of the totally obsessed with her sex life; Aline Lefevre is gay, out, proud and coarsely (but hilariously and in a strange way touchingly) vocal.  Her sex banter drives Maurice crazy - partly from jealousy, partly from embarrassment, mostly because he's feeling his damn age and she's not!  

At the core of the GOAT SONG though is a complex mystery - the two dead bodies discovered in the Moulin Rouge have been killed with startling brutality, the following death of a junkie is equally violent and Laice and Lefevre find that the downward spiral of Montmartre is deeper and dingier than they could have imagined.  Of course there's a bit behind their desire to clean up the drug problem in their area - and those motivations are revealed as the investigation proceeds.  As does the ongoing understanding of all the characters in this fabulous little book.

GOAT SONG is beautiful to read, provided you read it with French attitude.  (Okay maybe this Australian's idea of that glorious, complex, deep, introspective, cynical, melancholic, hopeful, celebratory, attitude - but that's the feeling that you get from GOAT SONG).  There's unfulfilled desire, fulfilled desire, questioning, sarcasm, friendship, hatred, tacky and the superb.  And there's food and wine.  It's a complex little book - and it's fascinating that so much happens in 176 pages.