I won't rate this book as I bailed on it after four pages.

The author seems to think that paedophilia is hip and cool, but I don't. Maybe he just put this element in to shock, in which case it worked too well for me.

***SPOILERS AND VULGAR LANGUAGE FOLLOW***

A pornographic, Lolita fantasy with a thin incredible plot relying on magical coincidence and characters functioning solely as wish-fulfillment automatons, garnished with trivial lip service paid to obsession with opera, "Diva" falls way short of being a proper thriller or thrilling. It's still remarkable as a specimen of what passed (passes?) for sexy entertainment à la française--that "sophisticated" French shit, dontcha know.

Alba and Gorodish are the unlikely and yet so common fantasy couple--a 40 year old con man and his 13 year old groomie. Alba is divinely beautiful, infernally sexy, and in love with her "mentor", like, totally. She is also convinced she is a woman and wishes Gorodish would fuck her already--but he resists, waiting for her to become legally of age--the law is a bitch, but thankfully in France he only has to wait until she matures into a positively haggard 14 year old. Therefore they only cuddle naked and kiss in bed. This, clearly, proves he is NOT a dirty paedo but a romantic gentleman any 13 year old girl could wish for. Or that a 13 year old girl's father could wish for her. In a further attempt to sanitize the excremental, we learn Alba's father handed her over to Gorodish with approval and enthusiasm. His reasons and state of knowledge of the situation are kept vague but it seems the man believes Gorodish is giving Alba a valuable education in Indian dance... among, possibly, other things. At any rate, the dad is a huge Gorodish fan and performs favours for him.

Alba and Gorodish cross paths with Jules the 20-something bike messenger and opera enthusiast whose passion baulks not from stalking of and stealing from the object of his affections. The object is African American opera singer Cynthia Hawkins. She is the greatest operatic star of the moment or all epochs, the titular diva--grand, expensive, absolutely remote to the point of forbidding every recording and dissemination of her performances (another ludicrously improbable feature of the plot, mais passons). All that jazz notwithstanding, she'll end up smitten and in bed with her fan, the 20-something bike messenger. Well, of course she will--who else could it have been, the pizza boy?

As if that weren't enough, Jules was also a great success with a black prostitute whom he fucks pretending she is Cynthia (he makes her put on a dress he's stolen from the diva), and indulges in some soul kissing with Alba. Wow, that Jules. Almost as swoony as the paedo.

Sad to say, I can see myself loving this crap at Alba's age--my generation, to say nothing of those before, came "pre-groomed" to such stories. But here's the thing with essential skeeziness--it persists. Glamour eventually falls off the turd, even when it's called l'étron. ( )

Read this about 30 years ago for the first time and enjoyed it again this time. It has a motorcycle messenger who secretly records an opera singer during a concert. This Diva however has never allowed herself to be recorded before. This makes his bootleg tape worth a fortune. While picking up his deliveries from his job a tape that's a tell all about a local gangster gets dropped into one of his saddle bags. With that being said the local mob is now after him. Add into the mix a petty thief and her mentor, who also has former mob ties. Was a fun fast paced book. It seems odd now to think of a recording on a cassette tape. But then again the book was translated and published in the US back in 1983. ( )

Back in the day I thought this series was so cool: sexy, and French, and awesome. I suppose it's telling that I've never felt a desire to re-read them. Nowadays the whole set up seems skeevy.

Personal copy. ( )