The Idea Of Love

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'The Idea of Love'
By Louise Dean
(Fig Tree/ Penguin)

They say you should never judge a book by its cover but the jacket of Louise Dean’s The Idea of Love speaks a thousand words. At first glance you’re greeted with a collage of all things lovely-dovey; flowers, hearts and playful cherubs, but when you look again you can pick out a scalpel in the bottom corner and the words “to my sweet Valentine” immediately underneath. It’s clear that whatever love means, we’re not in Mills and Boon territory.

The hard of hearts might be reassured that this is not a romance, but a study of the different aspects of love and the destruction it can wreak if left unchecked. Love may be a many splendoured thing, but to the protagonists of this book it might as well be a many headed beast.

The story starts simply in what eventually proves to be a complex and surprising book. Two couples form the backbone of a community of foreigners living out an idyllic existence in Provence. For them life is one big ex-pat party fuelled by sunshine and drinking. However, underneath the rural dream tensions are simmering. Richard is a cynical corporate animal, indulging in a string of semi-anonymous affairs while working away from home and his French wife Valerie, a seemingly emotionless creature. Between them is Max, their teenage son, an enigmatic, disturbed and disturbing figure. Meanwhile, their neighbour Jeff is unwilling to be swept away with his wife Rachel’s newfound religious zeal.

The powder keg ignites when the couples begin to find themselves drawn to Africa. Richard’s interest in the cradle of civilisation is professional one; he’s a salesman of psycho-medicines for a powerful company and it’s his job to sell the idea of easily treated sadness. Rachel’s dream is altruistic, hoping to build an orphanage for war torn children. But all dreams end in tatters when they find themselves at the centre of the world and utterly alone.

Returning to France, Richard finds he has lost everything when Valerie elopes with Jeff and Rachel subsequently heads back to London with her young daughter. Richard’s downward slide proves inescapable. His life begins to mirror a textbook case of mental illness and leads to the humiliation of being prescribed the very drugs he once peddled.

But the others are not having an easy time of it either... In their search to attain perfection and love, they have torn apart everything they once had. Only a desperate set of circumstances will help them find where they belong and discover what love might really mean.

All the bed-hopping and home-wrecking might make this sound like a harrowing ride, but Louise Dean has written a superb morality tale with great characters, lashings of black humour and some wonderful turns of phrase. It moves along at a great pace and has more than a few standout scenes that force you to pause for breath. The course of true love never runs smooth but you will find this enjoyable and thought provoking throughout with plenty of tenderness, madness, wit and even, ultimately, love.

- Darren Lee