Didier van Cauwelaert

I am not quite sure why people do not like this book. This is a short book, and I learned about it when I read it was basis for the thriller Unknown. And this is point that sort of a ruined it for me because plot is of the sort that you need to really forget it to enjoy it again (what I call The Sixth Sense effect). But even with this foreknowledge story is quite enjoyable, if not disturbing.

Not to ruin story to anyone, it is about man who suddenly finds himself face to face with man who show more seems to have just taken his place, and took over his career, house and wife! Story is very much reminiscent of identity crisis stories by Philip K Dick. As he tries to figure out what is going on, walls start coming in as they say.

Various comment about far fetched plot..... I do not think it is far fetched, after reading through lots of scientific books on the topic, this is by no means far fetched - I think that mind control and programming (as weird as these terms sound since they are all ridiculed) are something we all need to be terrified of. Nothing of it is new, and it just grew more effective.
About sexual reactions of our protagonist ... as time goes by I am ever surprised how big role sex plays in our life and society - and always has. It seems to be almost instinctive reaction during the periods of grave danger. Thankfully this only shows that humans are humans, biological not mechanical creatures. So when we take into account complete mind f**k situation our protagonist is in, these reactions are reasonable to me, there are wires crossed all over the place.

Again, this is novel, work of fiction, and as such very interesting one. While story is very similar to the one put on silver screen, novel stands on its own and story conclusion is very satisfying.

Highly recommended to fans of thrillers, especially mind-messing thrillers. show less

(Really this should be 3.5 stars.)

Botanist Martin Harris and his wife Liz arrive in Paris. As they're on their way to the apartment loaned to them by unorthodox botanical theorist Paul de Kermeur, Martin realizes he left his laptop at the airport; he hails a passing cab, driven by middle-aged divorcee Muriel. But the journey's cut short when a stolen lorry forces the cab off a bridge and into the Seine. Muriel saves Martin's life but he's in a coma for a few days. When he recovers he finds show more that Liz doesn't recognize him and that another "Martin Harris" has taken his place -- worse still, that the impostor is so well trained and convincing that Martin himself would believe him the real one if he didn't know better. Martin, Muriel and a genial old psychologist set out to establish the truth of what's going on.

The book was filmed moderately well as Unknown (2011), although with a number of changes, some justifiable, some needless, and one -- the replacement of the dowdy Muriel as cabdriver by a gorgeous babe -- downright annoying.

What's not to like about the book? There's rather too much daft pseudoscience, mainly concerning plant telepathy; even though it's possible in hindsight to reckon this could well be a deliberate part of the setup, at the time one's reading it it has the effect of distancing at least this reader from Martin's plight. Other than that I have few complaints. The opening premise seems to owe more than a little to that of The Man without a Name (1977) by Martin Russell (another Martin!), which I reviewed a while ago (http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/151812283), although the explanation is somewhat different. This is, however, despite some lurches in the translation, by far the better written of the two; indeed, it reads like a rocket -- the fact that it's a pretty short novel (more like a long novella) is only one of the reasons why you're like to read it in a sitting. The prose is really quite terse, and van Cauwelaert has the happy knack of being able to create a sense of place and situation with, often, the briefest of description. All in all, this succeeds admirably in what it sets out to do, as both a psychological thriller and, to an extent, an exploration of what we mean by identity. show less

A bit weird, this book. For once because it defied my expectations - which were something between Dan Brown and Umberto Eco, a light fast read for a free day. It was a light fast read in the end, but although I had plenty of the established Vatican conspiracy elements (ancient legends and shady clerics struggling for power under the disguise of searching for "the truth"), it was nothing like that.
Second, I didn't warm up to the main character. The celebrity ophthalmologist Nathalie Krentz show more starts out as a spoiled, shallow brat that cultivates a "lone wolf" image towards herself and her environment because of some more or less unspecified childhood trauma - as cliché as cliché can get. She is of mixed Jewish and Christian heritage, has decided for herself at some point that atheism is the easier way to get through life, and over the course of the novel, she is - at the behest of the pope's "advocatus diaboli" - to debunk the miracles a Mexican Indio has worked over the past 400 years. Over the course of this assignment, she and her worldview change significantly; unfortunately, too often I had the feeling that these changes were far too abrupt, that we don't get shown enough of her inner journey.
But even as I couldn't root for the main character, I did root for Juan Diego, the Indio in question and the second POV of the book. Due to him being dead for hundreds of years, his POV is written in a strange, very personal but somehow also omniscient 1st person that strung together various perspectives and events outside of Nathalie's POV, and I really liked it.
Another star is for atmosphere. The author doesn't tire his readers with tedious descriptions; instead, he conveys the strangeness, danger and beauty of a place like Mexicon City through little details. Especially the side characters had their part in this, and they were excellent; characters like the taxi driver Silvia or the insubordinate padre who becomes her protector were awesome.
Half a star is for the scene where Nathalie is mistaken for a prostitute. That was hilarious. show less

Un Aller Simple is a slim novel(120 pages)that tracks a Marsaillais orphan of unknown origins, rescued and raised by a group of Roms after his parents are killed in a traffic accident. His new family gives him the name Aziz (after Ami 6, the model of auto from which he is rescued)and bequeath him with false identification papers that transform him into a non Arabic-speaking Moroccan immigrant. He makes a living stealing car radios and courts his childhood Rom sweetheart, Lila. His fondest show more memories (and the highpoint of his young life) are of the few years he spent in school, especially in the class of a M. Giraudy, who, when Aziz is forced to quit school, gives him an atlas called Legends of the World, which Aziz reads and rereads and which is the one possession that he regrets when, moments before his marriage to Lila, he is snatched by the police on a false charge of jewelry theft. Instead of jail, Aziz is deported to Morocco in the company of an attache named Jean-Pierre Schneider, himself a refugee of sorts from a family of displaced foundry workers in Lorraine, to be repatriated to and economically reinserted in his "home" country as a good-will gesture on the part of the French government. Aziz spins a tale for Jean-Pierre (and finds his true vocation as a storyteller)that sets them off on a quest for Irghiz and the Valley of the Grey Men in the Atlas mountains. Their guide is a young Moroccan-French woman named Valerie who is cynical and fatalistic about both love and life. Much (or not much really) ensues as this tragicomic fairytale brings Aziz finally to yet another adopted home, that of Jean Pierre's parents in a factory town in Lorraine. There Aziz moves into Jean Pierre's childhood room and into his childhood and sets about writing Jean Pierre's novel(titled Un Aller Simple) or the story of Aziz as written by Aziz as Jean Pierre's replacement. The first third of the novel which recounts Aziz's life in Marseille is arguably the most interesting. The subsequent adventure that begins in Morocco and ends in Lorraine is simply unconvincing, even when considered as a legend or fairy tale. show less