Guy des Cars: Une certaine dame (1971)

The aristocratically born Guy des Cars, who without  expectation churned out novels at about the rate of one a year, was nicknamed 'Guy des Gares' by his detractors in recognition of his beach, or airport reads. But was he that bad?

Une certaine dame (a 435-page novel) is narrated by Dominique Gonzalez, and is almost entirely in flashback. It begins with the arrival of the stunningly beautiful Dominique with her billionaire Argentinian husband Miguel to a plush hotel in Biarritz with their four-year-old (adopted) son Raphaëlito, where Dominique dazzles the clientele.

But then things go wrong for Dominique: she is recognised by Patrick, a guy out on his luck who now starts blackmailing Dominique: he wants money, or expensive items he can sell in exchange for his silence over Dominique's past.

In the end Patrick ends up dead by a bullet in him, most probably arranged by Miguel, who is now in Sorrento many miles away from wagging tongues, from where no damage can be caused to the reputation of Dominique and her family. And the huge flashback?

This is what is hard to believe, the fact that Dominique's mother – disillusioned by her boyfriend in youth – should, as a result of an unfortunate sexual encounter with him, which resulted in the birth of Dominique, have chosen to shun the male sex so much that she brings the male Dominique up as a girl.

And the damage is big: Dominique is scorned so much by his/her fellow schoolmates, and misunderstood by the teachers, that he/she finds life unbearable. This is the cue for Dominique's mother to arrange for private lessons at home, hormone therapy, and, well...

Dominique doesn't like being a man, and although she enjoys the androgynous club her (and her mother's) friend Rara introduces her to, even later enjoys (with (truly unbelievably) her mother's approval) performing a striptease on stage down to a cache-sexe, she's decided to go the whole sexual hog and completely change sex.

Guy des Cars evidently delights in describing stories of the unusual, at the time no doubt considered slightly risqué, although today of course these matters are par for the course. Will his work continue to be read? I suspect not, although no doubt from time to time there be renewed interest in the work of Guy des Cars from a historical literary point of view.