Rouge karma par Jean-Christophe Grangé (review)

Reviewed by: Rouge karma par Jean-Christophe Grangé Nathalie G. Cornelius Grangé, Jean-Christophe. Rouge karma. Albin Michel, 2023. ISBN 978-2-226-43944-4. Pp. 579. Grangé's seventeenth novel, like his excellent Les Promises (2021), continues the new psycho-historical direction of his latest thrillers. To transport the reader to time periods and locations outside their area of comfort, 1930s Berlin and the rise of Nazi power of the earlier novel are replaced by Paris's post World War II generation during May 1968. The capital city's long-standing institutions, destabilized by the volatile clashes of conflicting ideologies among students, workers, immigrants, and the government, become both a foil and a segue to the profound misery and poverty of India's caste system. Rouge karma, like Grangé's prior novel, also features a trio of unlikely investigators brought together by an act of violence; in this case, the brutal slaying of two college friends. Fueled by the atmosphere of revolt in Paris, Nicole, an idealistic philosophy student of well-todo origins, and Hervé, a history student with a romantic heart, embark on a trip abroad with Hervé's half-brother, Jean-Louis, a socialist police investigator still suffering from flashbacks to the Algerian war. Jean-Louis's aggressive determination, in combination with Herve's intellectualism, and Nicole's knowledge of the then-in-vogue Indian spiritual practices propel their quest to vindicate the innocent victims whose eviscerated bodies were covered with curious rounded bite marks and positioned in yoga poses. Vivid atmospheric scenes of Paris and India, and incisive character descriptions, punctuated by thrilling chase scenes and suspenseful moments, add adventure to the thriller. Poetic language, political commentaries, and philosophical musings juxtapose West and East, albeit sometimes as caricatures. The characters plausibly evolve in their knowledge, courage, and understanding of humanity as they move from the rational logic of the Paris justice and education systems, through the May uprisings, to a world where only spirituality offers solace, where sects preaching religious syncretism, reincarnation, and karma are untouchable. Through this complete disorientation, Nicole, Hervé, and Jean-Louis are led to reassess their present existence and past beliefs. The primary characters are well-developed, and the secondary characters are sinister and intriguing. Grangé's Rouge karma is impressive because of the quantity of demographic, historical, and political details it provides. But the denseness of the information becomes a detriment to the novel's quality. The plot is thin and lost among the detailed environmental descriptions as the trio moves through Indian locales more similar than different. Repeated explanations of spiritual practices and their terminology become pedantic. As a result, the novel feels even longer than its already substantial physical length. The mystery, so key to Grangé's writings, is relegated to secondary importance and lacks the anticipated punch of the author's better works. The solution suffers from oversimplification, which is especially disappointing considering the complex journey the characters End Page 135 must undertake to uncover it. Les Promises, despite being of similar page length and intent, reads more fluidly and provides a better balance between characteriza-tion, historical immersion, and plot while imparting a much more satisfying development and conclusion to the murder mystery within it. End Page 136 Nathalie G. Cornelius Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania Copyright © 2024 American Association of Teachers of French