Droll Tales

October 30, 2000
Claiming that emotionally abusive relationships are widespread in marriages, families and the workplace, French psychotherapist Hirigoyen illuminates the subtle, insidious relationship that "emotional abusers" and their "victims" evolve. While recognizing that the "clean violence" of an emotional abuser--who as a "natural manipulator" often attracts others with a dynamic, winning style--is hard to prove, she aims to enable those who are being abused to recognize what's going on and get help, and to alert her fellow therapists to the danger signs. Often, emotional abuse builds over a long period of time until it becomes so unbearable that victims lash out in frustration and anger, only to appear unstable and aggressive themselves. This, according to Hirigoyen, is the intent of many abusers: to systematically "destabilize" and confuse their victims (with irrational, threatening behavior that preys on the victim's fears and self-doubts), to isolate and control them and ultimately to destroy their identity. These relentless "predators" are also incapable of compassion or empathy, always blame the victim and never see their actions as wrong. Already a bestseller in France, this clearly written and compassionate book offers sensible advice (get support and leave the relationship if the abuse is personal; take legal action if it is professional), though it may not be easy to execute in every case. A smooth translation, combined with a foreword by Thomas Moore and a jacket blurb from Alice Miller, should help this book find a niche readership of thoughtful self-help readers and therapists.

May 1, 2022
Fourteen stories featuring deeply weird characters moving through surreal and--yes--droll circumstances. If it's the case that the opening story of a collection sets the tone for it, then readers can learn a lot from the opening of Smyles' third book--following Dating Tips for the Unemployed (2016)--which begins with a glossary of "terms not found in this book." Sample entries include "Apostrophe: any event occurring after a rophe" and "Lemon Merengue: to move like a whipped dessert." This dad-joke bubble finally bursts after three pages, largely replaced by an approach that is part Monty Python and part Ren� Magritte. (Though there are plenty of groaners like the above throughout.) Smyles knows her humor tends toward the surreal; she explicitly invokes that school in stories like "Exquisite Bachelor," a nod to the exquisite corpse game favored by surrealists; the story itself imagines central figures of surrealism, from Dal� to Breton, competing on the reality show The Bachelor. The collection is bookended by two long stories: The opener, "Medusa's Garden," concerns a love triangle among the Guild of the Living Statues. In the closer, "O Lost," a lovelorn professor meets a mysterious smuggler and her motley crew of friends who force the professor to question the very nature of reality. If any art is subjective, funny art is doubly so. Smyles' jokes miss their mark as often as they land, partly due to the long, sometimes nearly hallucinatory tangents that pervade the collection, which can feel like Smyles merely writing for her own amusement. But at their best, the stories are erudite, original, and surprisingly poignant, as in the memorable "Contemporary Grammar," in which a love story is told entirely through diagrammed sentences on a fifth grade English test. An entertainingly eclectic, if self-indulgent, journey through the odder corners of existence.

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