Involved

A disturbing, slyly funny study of betrayal, infidelity and moral drift in Amsterdam's affluent middle class, this first novel by a Dutch ex-cop opens as Bram Aardsen, importer of Italian sports cars, runs over 12-year-old Dick Verwal, severing both of the boy's feet. Blaming himself for the accident, Bram channels his guilt into obsessive fatherly attention toward the wheelchair-bound boy. Meanwhile, Francien, Bram's possessive wife, suspecting that he's having an affair with Dick's beautiful mother, Pauline, breaks into accusatory rages that alienate Bram and finally push him into his supposed lover's arms. Bizarre events echo the accident: Bram assaults a junkie trying to steal his car radio, breaking the addict's legs; Francien smashes the skull of a would-be carjacker in Milan, killing him, while Bram blinds the dead man's accomplice; while appearing on an Italian TV show, boasting about killing her attacker, Francien is transformed into a feminist spokeswoman. The emotional twists and turns of this odd foursome-the Aardsens, narcissistic Pauline, and Dick, who craves a father substitute-climax in a surprising way: with Francien's emergence as the true heroine of this sexy, sophisticated story. (Oct.)