To anticipate, “mygale” is French for “tarantula.” I learned about Mygale, also published under its English translation, or else Serpent’s Tail, from a Goodreads review. It’s increasingly difficult to find good, short books. I knew little about it other than it is a “thriller” by Thierry Jonquet. The book contains one of the most cleverly drawn plots I’ve encountered in some time. I also believe it could slip into the horror genre. I’m reluctant to say much because the pieces are revealed so intricately that to summarize would be to ruin the effect. I will say that if you’ve seen The Skin I Live in you know the basic idea already.
I will opine that this story demonstrates that a book need not be excessively long to be a good novel. Some of us appreciate the economy of language that illustrates Pascal’s famous quote, “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” My first relatively descent novel was about 230,000 words, or, in other words, well over 400 pages. The publishers I half-heartedly queried said it was too long. When writing short stories I quickly learned that many journals only take them if they’re under 3,000 words, some only under 2,000. As a result, I began writing short. That’s not exactly true. I write the story as I want to tell it, then I cut it down. Again and again. Short seems to be the fashion in the internet age. Ironically, the books on my too read shelf all seem to be quite long. That’s why I decided to give Mygale a try.
I’m glad I did. The story may not be for the most squeamish, but it’s certainly not blood and gore. It’s a little confusing at first, but it comes to make sense. And the ending is somewhat satisfying. It’s not happy by any means, but it’s well told. Some classify it as science fiction, but there’s nothing too impossible about it. It’s set in France around the 1980s. No space ships or ray guns to be seen. Genres can be tricky in the face of creativity, but the final act, if you will, reveals this to have been horror all along. Well, I hope I’ve been able to give a sense of this book without giving any spoilers. Talking around a subject comes with years of classroom experience, I guess. I will say the spider isn’t literal.
