Crazy Genie

Italian French writer Cagnati (Free Day), who died in 2007, dazzles and devastates in equal measure with this tragic 1976 novel of life in the French countryside. Marie, the narrator, is the young daughter of an impoverished woman known in her village as Crazy Genie because she “didn’t talk, didn’t answer when she was questioned.” Perpetually working, Crazy Genie lets Marie tag along as she assists neighboring farmers with harvests, animal husbandry, stall cleaning, and corn husking. They’re surrounded by a landscape of profound beauty, where chestnut leaves “misted the air,” as well as abrupt violence, as when farmers bury alive the kittens and puppies they can’t take care of, sparking crazed and fruitless rescue attempts by the mothers. Other dangers lurk: a mason menacingly waits on the path that Marie takes home from school, and the townspeople are only too happy to exploit Crazy Genie’s labor. When Antoine, a local man rumored to have fathered a child with his sister, proposes marriage to Crazy Genie, she negotiates terms that ensure Marie will be able to finish school. Cagnati captures the seasons of agricultural life in short, poetic chapters that use repetition to great effect, conveying the characters’ slim chances of escaping their brutal world. This will leave readers in awe. (Mar.)