The eponymous “bombshell” – in more ways than one – of this ambitious political thriller is 17-year-old Séverine. She’s finding life rather dull in her new home in Ajaccio, the main city in Corsica, the windswept French territory where Napoleon was born.
It’s the early 90s and Corsica, a flashpoint since the French gained control of the island in 1768, is in turmoil. The era was marked by violence from armed independent groups seeking self-determination, while the French government responded by deploying more police and military resources.
Our aspiring actress has moved there, somewhat unwillingly, from Paris with her wealthy parents: her father is a French socialist politician on the island, pushing for Corsican autonomy.
We first meet the wilful Séverine as she seduces a boy on the beach (“So far she’d taken the virginity of four boys. Antoine made five.”), but within a few pages the real narrative begins as Séverine is kidnapped and taken deep into the island’s mountainous interior where she is held for ransom, the militants demanding money and the release of a Corsican prisoner on the mainland in exchange for her freedom.
After a rough start where she’s forced to sleep in a closet, Séverine begins – á la Patty Hearst – to warm to her jailers, and they to her. Soon she’s eating and working out with the trio and debating their various interpretations of post-colonial theorist Frantz Fanon, Marx and others.
Secretly, she desires Bruno, the leader of the group, and becomes jealous when she suspects he’s going out at night to meet women. But beyond that, the kidnapping allows her to re-evaluate her life of privilege.
“She didn’t think it strange that everyone at the resort in Sperone – where she and her mom liked to lunch … was French, German, Swiss. She didn’t think she would still be able to enjoy the scallop salad so innocently knowing this huge chunk of virgin land had been razed and fenced for the exclusive use of wealthy foreigners.”
Farr is a Salvadoran-American writer who has had some success with her short stories and this – her debut novel – is an intriguing, if sometimes confused, mix of political history, terrorist thriller and raunchy coming-of-age story.
Séverine is the focus throughout much of the novel, and seeing the world through the eyes of a spoilt teenager turned freedom fighter ‒ one who’s happy to consider planting bombs to further her newfound political agenda ‒ can be an exhausting reading experience.
Although she may be politically naive, Séverine knows the power of her burgeoning sexuality and is adept at using it on the men around her.
We learn of her first (unhappy) sexual experience and her dreams of conquering Hollywood, and as the novel unfolds, we get an insight into the personal toll extreme political activism can take. But for a novel mired in a real political struggle that continues – if with considerably less volatility – to this day, this never feels more than a handy narrative framework.
A final twist-laden section, which takes place 20 years later in Los Angeles, attempts to tie up some loose ends.
On the plus side, I can attest that Farr wonderfully captures the spirit of Corsican people and its landscape. And the novel’s sleek mix of sex, violence, female empowerment, exotic locations and sexy terrorists is tailor-made for a binge-friendly screen adaptation.
The Bombshell, by Darrow Farr, (Atlantic, $39.99), is out now.
