The Trendsetter

In my previous blog I wrote about how to obtain facts for use in fiction and mentioned that I preferred to use my own experiences when illustrating the setting for the characters since this is the best way to show the reader what I see, smell, taste, hear and feel about these place(s). However, if I am not able to experience the setting(s) where I place my protagonist, I will go for the second best – looking for other’s sensory experiences in describing these places.

This is exactly what I did last week. I needed more information about a particular arrondissements in Paris where the setting took place for my novel Antara Dua Kota. I did find some, but it was written by tourists who had been there for less than a week. But I needed a comprehensive description by someone who actually lives there. Before bugging the bloggers who have been to Paris (as tourists) for help, I decided to go to my local library to see if I could find what I am looking for.

I didn’t find anything specific, but I found a novel titled Lion Eyes by Claire Berlinski. I read it at home and I couldn’t put it down. I read it that night cover-to-cover.

I had picked-up this novel because the cover has the image of the Eiffel Tower on it and when I read the author’s background on the jacket, it said she spends her time between Paris and Istanbul. This piqued my interest and so I decided to take it out.

The story centers on the protagonist named Claire who lives in Paris and is in the middle of writing her second novel. Between nursing her broken hip due to an accident and with the canicule time of year in full force, she can’t do anything other than sit in front of her computer. This is when a mysterious fan named Arsalan (means ‘the Lion’) from Iran contacts her via email with interest to purchase her spy novel, Loose Lips. Because he says Amazon.com won’t send him the novel, she sends him a copy - in pdf format - and before they knew it, they are emailing each other back and forth.

Soon a romance blossoms, and due to the Parisian heat, she accepts his supervisor’s housing exchange, Istanbul-Paris invitation. She escapes to Istanbul to try to complete her novel. While in Istanbul she continues to correspond with Arsalan. She falls in love with him and when she thinks that the best is yet to come; his email to her is intercepted by the CIA. This is where the plots twists and turns so quickly that you have no way to go but to continue reading to the end.

This novel is about espionage woven with romance and is set in an exotic setting – excellent ingredients for a page turning novel!

What I find interesting and useful to me is how the author describes Paris and Istanbul in a strong sensory way. I can see how Paris looks and smells in the summer. She also describes certain out of the way places that are not written about in the tourist books. She brought me through the protagonist’s eyes to the back alleys and places that are hidden from the tourists. Likewise, when the protagonist went to Istanbul, again the author describes Istanbul so vividly that I can feel the dry air blowing hard against my face and see the particles of dust flying into my eyes that I have to squint while reading about walking on the streets of this city.

It is through her experiences of living in Paris and Istanbul that she is able to describe the settings for her novel so aptly. On top of it, the author’s writing styles are funny, romantic (the emails from Arsalan) yet straightforward making the story exciting. The flashback and the foreshadow techniques are used very well to make the plot thicken with suspense and surprise.

So if you are interested in a novel about strong characters placed in an international setting, this novel is the one. Not only the story entertaining, one can get a good sense of each city’s pulse of life.