February 12, 2024
This madcap offering from Wolff (Carnality) zags from the heady sweetness of Florence to the mystical allure of New Orleans. The unnamed narrator, a rootless 30-something Scandinavian woman, has fallen madly in love in Italy with an ugly and cruel man known only as “il pulito” for being neat and tidy. Their relationship is complicated—she is possessive; he beats her and flagrantly cheats—and made even more so by the woman’s belief that they are possessed by devils, the only possible explanation she can find for their violent, passionate, codependent behaviors. A chance encounter with another man gives her an opportunity to leave il pulito behind and start over in New Orleans. Unfortunately, a different kind of evil awaits her there, and she is left with only a “worm’s-eye-view” of the city, desperate to escape back to Florence and her devilish true love. The off-the-rails plot does not rise to the heights of Wolff’s best novels and the people the narrator meets in New Orleans are mere caricatures rather than fully fleshed characters. Still, il pulito and some of the other cast, including the therapist the couple briefly sees, are rendered monstrously and magnificently. It’s a provocative addition to Wolff’s impressive canon.
March 1, 2024
In the romantic city of Florence, a woman newly arrived from her home country meets a man whom she transforms from an ugly duckling into a swan. The more ""manly"" he becomes, though, the unhealthier their relationship gets, especially for the woman, who narrates. Unable to pull herself away, our protagonist explains the horrors of abuse by likening it to a kind of demonic possession that has taken hold of the couple, a power they cannot resist. Swedish author Wolff (Carnality, 2022) illustrates the narrator's profound self-examination. Readers feel the oppressive, claustrophobic situation of being mired in a relationship detrimental to both body and mind. Tension surrounds the question of whether our protagonist has the capacity to escape. It won't be lost on readers that Florence is the birthplace of Dante; the woman's struggles mirror Dante's journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise in The Divine Comedy. Expertly translated by Vogel, The Devil's Grip is a frightening odyssey toward the understanding of self and of someone who is ultimately unknown to you.
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