The Monroe Girls

The fascinating and sardonic latest from Volodine (Bardo or Not Bardo) plays out in the mind of a schizophrenic who lives in a postapocalyptic psychiatric hospital among the living and the dead. Breton, the narrator, alternates from first- to third-person, as when he describes himself as a decrepit man who “could pass unnoticed amid a group of seventy-year-olds being led to the slaughterhouse.” He believes his fractious country’s once-reigning political party has tasked him with tracking down a foul-mouthed female paramilitary group called the Monroe Girls. Thirty years ago, Breton was madly in love with their leader, Rebecca Rausch, whose apparent suicide was perhaps the cause of his mental spiral. The funhouse narration flips through Breton’s myriad alter egos, including a bounty hunter named Kaytel. As Kaytel, he relies on informants including Breton himself and a “warlock, shaman, or clairvoyant” named Borgmeister, a stooge for the cops who gives his “dregs” to Kaytel. Later, the narrator reunites with Rebecca and the two team up to find Borgmeister. Volodine maintains control of the vivid images and wild flights of fancy, which range from spiders and sea urchins sprouting from human flesh to talk of cosmonauts and telepathy, thanks to his grounded and ironic prose. It’s a delight. (Mar.)