Illegal Liaisons by Grażyna Plebanek

First published in Poland in 2010; published in translation by New Europe Books on August 13, 2013

Illegal Liaisons is a novel of characters who stand on "the threshold of happiness and scruples, sexual fulfillment and moral trembling." Jonathan (born Januszek) abandoned his plan to live as a citizen of the world when he married Magda (nicknamed Megi), took a job in Poland as a journalist, had children, and wrote some moderately successful children's fairy tales. As the novel opens, Jonathan is moving to Brussels where Megi has taken a job. There gets his own job, teaching a writing class. Living in Brussels restores Jonathan's sense that the world is his home, a home that is "large, sunny, and full of love" -- large enough, at any rate, to hold both his wife and his new mistress. Frustrated with "the smallness of his family life," including his role as homemaker, Jonathan is renewed by his affair with Andrea. He loves Megi but in a different way he loves Andrea. When a friend tells him he'll never leave Megi and asks "What would you do without her?" Jonathan responds "Which one?" Frustrated both by his inability to choose and by the choices he has made, Jonathan's dilemmas become more worrisome as the story unfolds.

Illegal Liaisons follows the arc of a fairly common domestic drama -- the ordinariness of the story is the novel's only serious weakness -- but the characters are sharp and the writing is lively. Sentences like "Megi fell silent, and Jonathan thought how uncomfortable he felt with his backside sticking out in front of an embittered woman" encourage the reader to keep turning the pages. Jonathan's complimentary description of a writing student who had "no fear of thinking and a resistance to haste" applies equally to Grażyna Plebanek's construction of Illegal Liaisons. Some of the narrative is erotic, and while I thought it was tasteful, the descriptive language might be too graphic for some readers.

Jonathan is an amusingly opinionated character. He is locked in an identity crisis, not sure if he is a serious author or a dabbler in children's books, an idealist or an empty vessel. He doesn't know why he needs Andrea or why she needs him (which raises the broader question of why people need each other, why spouses in a happy marriage have affairs). Jonathan is sex-obsessed to a degree that is almost comical but not altogether unrealistic. A typical sentence in the book will say something like "He wondered if she was wearing panties," a thought that is entirely removed from whatever conversation Jonathan is having (and to which he is likely paying no attention). Readers who seek out admirable protagonists will want to avoid Illegal Liaisons, while readers who appreciate nuanced characters, who want to learn something about human nature from Jonathan's conflict, will consider their time with this likable cad well spent.

Occasional sections of the novel, always brief and italicized, focus on Megi. Despite their brevity, they are the most revealing and surprising passages in the novel. Another couple, spouses "condemned to each other," adds an additional dimension to Plebanek's exploration of marital relationships.

Pondering an apparently unfinished story written by one of Jonathan's students, a character asks "What happened next?" The response he receives is "That's the best question possible." Meaning, I suppose, it's best for the story to continue in the reader's imagination. Although Illegal Liaisons reaches a resolution of sorts, it leaves ample room for the reader to imagine what's next.

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