Rating: 
Summary: A Life of Lies
Review: "On the Saturday morning of January 9, 1993, while Jean-Claude Romand was killing his wife and children, I was with mine in a parent-teacher meeting at the school attended by Gabriel, our eldest son."Anyone who can resist reading the remainder of this slim volume after those introductory words is no fan of true-crime books. And if that sentence doesn't do it, then the two which follow will certainly entice the remaining readers to continue. THE ADVERSARY is a remarkable and thoughtful description of a man who lived a lie for almost twenty years, but who was also a loving husband, father and son. That Romand murdered his wife, his two children and both of his parents is not only horrifying in itself, but is all the more frightening because of the effective façade he maintained--that of a kind and helpful neighbor, an admired member of his community and one who his acquaintances believed was a famous research scientist. If he could have so effectively fooled friends, then we must all wonder if we too are not being deceived by someone we know, or think we know. A congenital liar and, needless to say, a very effective one, Romand was--and is--probably most successful in actually convincing himself his lies reflect reality. Author Carrère admits that there may be even more fabrication woven into what he has learned from this quiet, unassuming, multiple murderer, but what he has been able to verify is itself stranger than any fiction. THE ADVERSARY is thought provoking, fascinating, and terrifying.
Rating: 
Summary: A HO HUM BOOK WITH A FASCINATING STORY
Review: ...The story is fascinating as it describes an adult life that is led as a complete lie 24 hours a day for year after year after year. Sounds kinda impossible, doesn't it? It is true, however, you will have to plod through some "plain vanilla" writing to get the meat of the situation. For me, I have no luck reading a translated literary work. To my recollection I have not liked even one translated book well enough to give it a great rating....in fact most of them I quit before finishing. At least this was interesting enough to where I read from beginning to end.
Rating: 
Summary: A moral monster
Review: A well-mannered restraint suffuses this narrative about a man who murdered his wife, his two children and his parents, but wasn't able to kill himself. In relating this striking tale of psychological cowardice and narcissistic madness, French novelist and screenwriter, Emmanuel Carrère, has chosen to avoid sensationalism, to underwrite and to underplay. One is reminded of the style of Albert Camus in his novel The Stranger, and especially the flat tone of his narrator, Meursault, whose lack of affect made him the fascinating anti-hero of a generation. Jean-Claude Romand, the real-life murderer here, is a study in sociopathic narcissism but is unlikely to become anybody's anti-hero. He spent most of his adult life pretending to be a doctor, fooling everybody he knew including his wife and best friend into thinking he worked as a researcher at the World Health Organization. He supported himself and his family by stealing the funds of his parents and friends while pretending to invest the money in high yield Swiss accounts. That he was able to get away with this for something like seventeen years is amazing. It reminds us once again of the power that charismatic and smooth-talking sociopaths have over ordinary people. I am also reminded of Jeffrey MacDonald from Joe McGinnis's Fatal Vision. I see a type of person who has no feelings for anybody but himself, but who works the normal human feelings of others to his advantage. Jean-Claude Romand's particular weirdness was that he got great pleasure from being self-effacing, modest and humble, whether as a fake doctor working for the good of humankind, or as a man suffering from a fake incurable cancer. That he was able to turn his imprisonment into something of a heroic martyrdom in his own mind, is not surprising. There is an old joke about a man who felt so sorry for himself that he pleaded in court for mercy after murdering his parents since he was now an orphan. Jean-Claude Romand is such a man, a man who can only feel his own pain, not that of others, a man who murdered his family without compunction and then felt sorry for himself because of the tragedy he had to endure. I have often wondered about such people, the so-called psychopaths among us. What I wonder is, are they a completely different type of human being from the rest of us, or do we deceive ourselves? Is it possible that they are only an extreme example of what we ourselves are? A book like this makes us wonder even more. How a man who seemed to love his family, who called his parents every night before going to bed, who cuddled his children and loved his wife, who seemed normal and admirable to his friends, a person whom others trusted with their life savings--how could he suddenly be exposed as a pitiless fraud and a murderer? How could everybody be so wrong about him? In the jungle, animals prey on other animals, sometimes by taking advantage of a weakness, as when a spider spins a web that the fly doesn't see, or because of their superior strength, as when the tiger fells the lamb. Do the sociopaths among us, some not actually violent, as Romand wasn't until his money ran out, have a kind of talent or psychological trick of behavior that takes advantage of our weakness? Are they a kind of monstrous humanity that preys upon society like a parasite that is so camouflaged that it cannot be distinguished from its prey? Carrère's point of view, that of a writer who thrust himself into this man's life, forced him to examine his feelings toward this man whom he had in some sense befriended. What effect did this conjoining have on Carrère? Carrère answers this question. He writes after seeing Romand become filled with the joy of Christ's love and forgiveness, the tears running down Romand's cheeks, that he does not believe that Romand "is putting on an act," but that "the liar inside" of Romand is "putting one over on him." (p. 191) In short, Carrère believes that the "adversary" is deceiving Romand once again. The "adversary," by the way, is defined by Carrère as another name for the devil. Pardon me for not being completely satisfied with that. Romand fools himself always so that he may live with himself, so that he will not fall into the state of depression that he so richly deserves, but let's not conjure up any devils to blame. To know all is to forgive all, it is said, and Christ does indeed forgive all, but in this world among others we must obey the laws of people, and if we do not we must pay the price and accept the responsibility. Romand is, was, and will be the monster, the man who murdered his wife, his parents and his little children in an attempt to save himself from the pain of exposure. That's the bottom line. May GOD have mercy on his soul.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting True Crime Story
Review: Emmanuel Carrère's true crime story The Adversary begins with one of the most arresting first lines I have ever read: "On the Saturday morning of January 9, 1993, while Jean-Claude Romand was killing his wife and children, I was with mine in a parent-teacher meeting at the school attended by Gabriel, our eldest son." What follows is the nearly unbelievable story of Romand, who deceived his family and his closest friends for eighteen years, convincing them that he was a prominent doctor employed in Geneva by the World Health Organization. In fact, Romand had never finished medical school, and he spent his days reading newspapers in cafes or taking walks in the woods. He supported himself and his family on money he swindled from friends and relatives, trusting souls who, incredibly, rarely asked about the status of the considerable sums Romand had allegedly invested for them. Romand's story might be just bizarrely amusing--a French variation of the life of deceit adopted by Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Catch Me If You Can, albeit with a less clever protagonist--were it not for what happened next. When Romand's deceit was likely to be uncovered--he had drained dry the well of his acquaintances' bank accounts--he murdered his wife and his parents, his five-year-old son and his daughter, and he tried, but only half-heartedly, to kill himself. As the first sentence of Carrère's book suggests, the author periodically interjects his own experiences and responses into his narrative. He is clearly concerned with separating himself from the small "club" of Jean-Claude's devotees, Christian prison visitors who have come to admire the murderer in his new role as repentant sinner, the anguished prisoner who has found God and, condemned to life, assumes his suffering as some sort of expiation for his crimes. Carrère is rightly appalled--at least to an extent--by these do-gooders, and he does manage to succeed, I think, in distancing himself from them. The author is decidedly not an apologist for Romand. Carrère's account of Romand's life and crimes, meanwhile, despite its horrific subject matter, is riveting.
Rating:
Summary: Riveting True Crime Story
Review: Emmanuel Carrère's true crime story The Adversary begins with one of the most arresting first lines I have ever read: "On the Saturday morning of January 9, 1993, while Jean-Claude Romand was killing his wife and children, I was with mine in a parent-teacher meeting at the school attended by Gabriel, our eldest son." What follows is the nearly unbelievable story of Romand, who deceived his family and his closest friends for eighteen years, convincing them that he was a prominent doctor employed in Geneva by the World Health Organization. In fact, Romand had never finished medical school, and he spent his days reading newspapers in cafes or taking walks in the woods. He supported himself and his family on money he swindled from friends and relatives, trusting souls who, incredibly, rarely asked about the status of the considerable sums Romand had allegedly invested for them.
Romand's story might be just bizarrely amusing--a French variation of the life of deceit adopted by Leonardo DiCaprio's character in Catch Me If You Can, albeit with a less clever protagonist--were it not for what happened next. When Romand's deceit was likely to be uncovered--he had drained dry the well of his acquaintances' bank accounts--he murdered his wife and his parents, his five-year-old son and his daughter, and he tried, but only half-heartedly, to kill himself.
As the first sentence of Carrère's book suggests, the author periodically interjects his own experiences and responses into his narrative. He is clearly concerned with separating himself from the small "club" of Jean-Claude's devotees, Christian prison visitors who have come to admire the murderer in his new role as repentant sinner, the anguished prisoner who has found God and, condemned to life, assumes his suffering as some sort of expiation for his crimes. Carrère is rightly appalled--at least to an extent--by these do-gooders, and he does manage to succeed, I think, in distancing himself from them. The author is decidedly not an apologist for Romand. Carrère's account of Romand's life and crimes, meanwhile, despite its horrific subject matter, is riveting.
Debra Hamel -- book-blog reviews
Author of Trying Neaira: The True Story of a Courtesan's Scandalous Life in Ancient Greece
Rating:
Summary: True crime story by true author but ...
Review: I became a fan of Emmanuel Carrere's work when The Mustache was first published in English. I was impressed by the growth in Carrere's skill in The Class Trip. Unfortunately, The Adversary struck me as simply a pleasant summer read. I must admit, however, that true crime is not my favorite genre. The problem with The Adversary is inherent in its subject - the criminal himself has lived so many lies that he has no idea of who he really is. Carrere in depicting Romand as honestly as possible depicts a "generic lie" person ... a person who "exists" only to the extent that other individuals substantiate ... even if Romand, himself, does not remember. In this context, Carrere is forced to insert himself into the story, explaining both how he came to write the story and some of the difficulties in doing so. The result is an excellent semi-journalistic account of Romand's life and trial - probably an excellent book for those with an interest in true crime stories. For those whose enjoyment is in Carrere's ability to depict human fear, confusion, horror this book is ultimately unsuccessful. Romand is so far from the norm that insight into his plight sheds little light on the human plight.
Rating:
Summary: True crime story by true author but ...
Review: I became a fan of Emmanuel Carrere's work when The Mustache was first published in English. I was impressed by the growth in Carrere's skill in The Class Trip. Unfortunately, The Adversary struck me as simply a pleasant summer read. I must admit, however, that true crime is not my favorite genre. The problem with The Adversary is inherent in its subject - the criminal himself has lived so many lies that he has no idea of who he really is. Carrere in depicting Romand as honestly as possible depicts a "generic lie" person ... a person who "exists" only to the extent that other individuals substantiate ... even if Romand, himself, does not remember. In this context, Carrere is forced to insert himself into the story, explaining both how he came to write the story and some of the difficulties in doing so. The result is an excellent semi-journalistic account of Romand's life and trial - probably an excellent book for those with an interest in true crime stories. For those whose enjoyment is in Carrere's ability to depict human fear, confusion, horror this book is ultimately unsuccessful. Romand is so far from the norm that insight into his plight sheds little light on the human plight.
Rating:
Summary: The (Un)Reality of Evil; Terrifying and Mesmerizing
Review: I finished this book late last night and it still haunts me. It has a genuine chance to be recognized as a cult classic, at least. It's the story of a man whose entire life was a lie, who hadn't drawn an honest breath since his university days. When his world threatened to collapse he murdered his wife, his two small children, his elderly parents, and tried to kill his mistress (and probably murdered his father-in-law several years before.) The book is less than 200 pages long, but it has the depth and impact of a much larger work. Carrere's style is both elegant and clear, and he teases the most subtle and difficult implications out of the material, both philosophical and religious ("adversary" is, of course, a Biblical name for Satan.) As Romand claims to get religion while incarcerated, and as he is aided by some saintly (or naive?) prison volunteers, the book moves from consideration of one horribly ugly case to a meditation on radical evil and the possible circumstances of repentance. The author shows great psychological insight, and one of the most chilling things about the book is how Carrere makes you empathize with Jean-Claude Romand, crook and damned murderer of five. (I now absolutely have to read his other books. And will someone in the U.S. publish his biography of Philip K. Dick? It's got to be a doozy, given the virtuosity and subject matter of this one.) The final paragraphs of this book are terrifying and will stay with you; the reader is forced to consider the palpable presence of "the adversary.". Not just a true-crime book, but a genuine work of literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Sympathy for a Monster
Review: I found this book to be horrifying in its concentration on feeling empathy for a man who killed his parents, his wife and his children. He robbed, cheated and lied his way through life and the author wants us to care about him? No attempt was made in this book to cause us to care about his victims. Even while he is in prison he cons his way but we are supposed to accept his behavior because he reads the bible and professes to love Jesus. I might have been able to enjoy the book if it were well written. I found the writing mundane and non-engrossing. If the author wanted to interest me in the main character he shoud have stayed with him instead of trying to make the author's connection with the conman a part of the story. I found no facts in the book that I had not already read in earlier newspaper accounts. If you must read it pick it up in a dustbin. I do not understand the praise it has received.
Rating:
Summary: Lies, Madness, and Tragedy
Review: I'm not usually one to delve into the true crime genre, but my admiration for Carerre's novel "Class Trip" in conjunction with the slimness of this volume, inspired me to read this French one. The book concerns Jean-Claude Romand, a seemingly well-liked and respected research scientist at the World Health Organisation who one day killed his wife and children, and his parents. He survives a fire lit to clumsily mask the murders and in the ensuing investigation, it quickly becomes clear his professional life has been a lie. After a somewhat sheltered childhood, he attended medical school and quietly dropped out after missing an exam that he most likely would have passed. Instead of completing his studies (which he seemed perfectly able to do), he instead embarked on a lifetime of lies designed to perpetuate the myth of a rapidly ascendant career. Carerre is intrigued by the case and researches Romand's life of deception, hoping to arrive at some kind of understanding. The book was a bestseller in France, partly due to Carerre's name, and partly due to the O.J.-like publicity surrounding the case. Removed from that context, to an American audience it becomes a disturbing portrait of how a life can momentarily go off course and lead to madness. Romand the real person is totally subsumed to Romand the compulsive liar, seeking approval and validation in a normal married with kids and mistress Euro-yuppie life. To maintain this false life over fifteen years or so, he swindled family and friends out of huge sums of money, and in the end, when a simple phone call to his nonexistent office, brought his house of false walls down, he chose to spare those closest to him the pain of discovering his lies by killing them. Carerre tries unsuccessfully to mold this tragic tale into a deeper meditation on human identity, and the ethics of forgiveness and understanding, but in the end, the reader is left with the simple impression of a mind and life gone madly awry. As in "Class Trip," Carerre's writing is elegant in a simple, stark way that some may find off-putting, but I personally enjoyed.
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