Will O' The Wisp

I really found Drieu's style to be incredibly cynical but smart-two things I really enjoy when I read anyway. I liked how he continuously described scenes without really saying what was going on. For instance, when Lydia goes to the bathroom to put on makeup, we are told that she went to "paint a strange caricature of life over her corpse's face." This writing style is powerful because it does more than tell-it also comments and criticizes without being overly direct. I mean, that image says a lot more than "Lydia went to put on makeup." It describes the sad decreptitude of Alain's life and his cynical outlook on the world. He doesn't see finesse or beauty in the act of doing ones face, but instead, describes it with strange morbidity. I think this subtle style adds to the content of the novel and gives the reader a deeper look into the character's psyche.

I also liked the part where Alain is contemplating what he will do with the money from Lydia. Drieu seems to have a running theme throughout the work that comments on the cyclical nature of drug use and how that mimics the cycle between day and night. There's one point where he just says, "It was the night, it was drugs. It was no longer Lydia, whom the night, whom the drugs erased..." When I read this I got the sense that things would not turn out so great for Alain and his attempt to find a "cure.' I thought this subtle synonym between drugs and night points to the idea that regardless of what Alain does, he will continue to use drugs because it has become a 'natural' cycle for him, as natural as the day turns to night without any will of our own. To me, I think this is a style that is again, cynical, but is written to appear secretly cynical-as if there is some hope (which mimics Alain's entire predicament of drugs and hanging onto some idea of hope).