Graeme Macrae Burnet
The Disappearance of Adele Bedeau by Graeme MaCrae Burnet presumably focuses on Adele Bedeau and her mysterious disappearance. In reality, the novel is not about Adele since she has a minor role to play in the novel. Instead, the focus is on Manfred Baumann, an introverted, socially inept, and painfully self-conscious loner, haunted by his past.
Manfred, a bank manager, keeps a fastidious routine in his daily life. He eats in the same restaurant, sits at the same table, has the same drink, joins a poker game once a week, harbors a secret crush on the waitress Adele Bedeau, frequents the same barber, does his laundry on the same day ever week, maintains a regular appointment at a brothel, and is painfully conscious of his marginalized existence. Even the slightest deviation from his ritual generates panic and existential angst.
As a young teenager, Manfred’s brief relationship with a girl ended tragically. The event was investigated by Inspector Georges Gorski at the time. The incident with the girl continues to haunt Manfred and thwarts his relationship with women. When Adele Bedeau goes missing, Manfred comes under suspicion and is questioned by Gorski who intuits Manfred is withholding information. Eventually, Gorski connects Manfred with the young girl of twenty years ago and the missing Adele Bedeau. This does not bode well with Manfred.
The strength of the novel lies in the depiction of Manfred’s interiority. He is a tortured individual plagued with doubts about his ability to function normally. He questions his every move and interrogates the nuances of his speech and mannerisms. He analyzes how people react to him and engages in erratic behavior when convinced he is being watched and followed. Adele Bedeau’s minor part in the landscape of Manfred’s interiority is reinforced by the intentionally open-ended resolution in which the cause of her disappearance is never fully explained.
Burnet includes metafictional elements in the “translator’s afterword” in which he claims he is the translator of what turns out to be a non-existent French mystery. He gives the fictitious French author the name of Raymond Brunet, provides him with a detailed background, and ends his life by suicide. He also gives the “original novel” its own history by claiming the screen version has become a classic. These metafictional elements may or may not be interesting, but they add nothing to the narrative. One wonders why they were even included.