Wow she did it! Virginie Despentes brings her story of urban life; Parisien style to a suitable climax; in this the final part of the trilogy. The Christ like figure of Vernon Subutex who communicates only through his presence and his work at the mixing desk manages to become a cult figure for future generations. However this is not a novel about the future, but about contemporary life in Paris France.

In Tome 1 we met Vernon just as his life was changed by the death of a famous french chanteur Alex Bleach. Vernon managed a record/disc shop in town, but also worked in some capacity looking after the wayward pop star. When Alex died maybe from an overdose, but under suspicious circumstances he left Vernon three cassettes. Vernon found himself suddenly homeless and the lease had expired on his record shop. He had plenty of hangers on in his shop and managed to lodge with some of them for a while, but when favours ran out he found himself living on the streets of Paris. A film producer connected to the criminal underworld sets out to steal the cassettes and a journalist is putting together a biography of Alex Bleach and a search is on to track down Vernon who at the end of Tome 1 suffers a vicious beating.

Tome 2 finds Vernon at deaths door, but he manages to find somewhere in one of the Parisien Parks to heal. He is befriended by a couple of other homeless people in the park and then by staff of a restaurant that backs onto the park. Vernon's suffering has resulted in him being an ethereal like figure, but gradually more people gather around his makeshift home including some of the people who frequented his record shop and or knew Alex Bleach. The violent incident in this book does not involve Vernon, but the film producer is assaulted in his home by two of Vernon's female camp followers. Vernon is talked into running disco nights at the restaurant which soon become popular. His followers arrange for out of town "convergences" rave like events with Vernon mixing the music.

At the start of Tome 3 Vernon's rave events are turning into gatherings of like minded people. Some of the old crowd are with him, but he is attracting new people. They bliss out at the drug and alcohol free events dancing the weekend away to Vernon's mixing of the music. A follower of Vernon dies leaving Vernon a considerable sum of money. The close knit group around the DJ cannot decide what to do with it and when Vernon suggests they make a zombie film using the actresses from the porn industry that are part of his group, nobody is enthusiastic and the idea of getting hold of the money breaks up the circle. Vernon goes off with his latest girlfriend/manager earning a living as a DJ for hire. It is 2015 the year of the Bataclan terrorist attack in Paris. There is also a violent incident in the circle that had gathered around Vernon. He drifts back to Paris.................

Vernon is sometimes a catalyst, but more often a sort of cipher, a hollowness at the centre of this group, that whirl around him. Despentes uses the back stories of her characters to raise issues about modern life, with Paris as the contemporary backdrop. Racism, homelessness, prostitution, violence, politics, religion, criminality, terrorism, immigration, relationships and gender awareness are all subjects raised and experienced by the characters that people the book. Vernon has no views on any of this, letting everything happen to him, while he concerns himself with making lists of music to play. The introduction of new characters and the development of their lives, their views and interactions are used by Despentes to paint a vivid picture of issues facing characters living on the fringe of urban society. The hollow centre of the book works, because Despentes is looking to examine the figures, motifs, developments and myths around the periphery. I wondered if Despentes would be able, somehow bring this all together in this final book; she does triumphantly. I rate this novel at 5 stars. ( )

Virginie Despentes voit en nous, en l’humain. Elle en dévoile les petitesses et les grandeurs, la merde et les délices, la haine et la générosité. Un panorama d’humanités qui va du facho au bobo et du cadre au clodo, de l’homo à l’hétéro, du soumis au violent… tout le monde y passe, les petits comme les insignifiants.

Ni psychologue, ni sociologue, mais plutôt une humanologue affûtée.

Trois tomes au service d’une fin brillante en forme d’anti 2084 ( )

'He does not say what he is thinking. He is thinking that no-one is solid. Nothing. No group. That is the hardest thing to learn. That we are tenants of a situation, not landlords.'

And so we come to the last volume in the trilogy, in which Vernon's group - the core handful and those who attend the regular 'convergences' - face their final challenges. On a trip to Paris to visit his dentist, Vernon learns of the death of his close friend Charles, who seems to have left the group half of the winnings of a lottery windfall, amounting to nearly 500,000 Euros. This stroke of fortune, however, only causes friction in the camp and soon it disintegrates, with Vernon setting off on his own to tour round Europe giving gigs. As terror strikes the French capita,l he and his followers find themselves returning for one last convergence...

For those familiar with the trilogy, the series of inter-connected stories continue from part 2, especially that of Aícha and Céleste, now the target of revenge by Laurent Dopalet for what they did to him previously. The rest of the familiar faces are back, too, and with the shadow of the terrorist attacks hanging over them, the book takes on a much darker atmosphere, and seems to be drawn inexorably towards some sort of defining moment for them all.

I loved this trilogy. It is fresh, vibrant and Despentes has a style that joyfully takes a satirical swipe at anything and everything. I have read nothing like it for a long time and can't recommend it (the trilogy as a whole) enough. I have given each book 4 stars, but - bizarrely - give the whole trilogy a 5, just because of its scope and style. What holds me back from a 5 for this particular volume is the slightly bonkers epilogue, which explores the legacy of some of the characters: a Vernon cult, the banning of music and what one of the the descendants of Aicha did in the year 2186. It's very Despentes, but just weird!

A defining trilogy that breaks all the rules and just has a life of its own. Superb. ( )

J'avais l'impression, encore plus que les deux dernières fois, que Despentes se réveille chaque matin et réfléchit à une suite de ce qu'elle a écrit la veille. Ca devient difficile de gérer toute la troupe, et la cohérence du groupe est aussi inconstant que la cohérence de l'action. La fin, c'est comme si elle s'est réveillée avec une gueule de bois après une soirée particulièrement longue et intense . J'aurais bien lu un quatrième tôme qui raconte ce qu'elle met dans les deux dernieres pages. En a-t-elle eu marre soudain de cette trilogie?

La France a connu les attentats de Charlie Hebdo et du Bataclan. La peur étreint désormais chacun au moment de prendre le métro ou d'aller au concert. L'auteur poursuit avec une force littéraire rare sa représentation d'une société française déboussolée, en quête de relations humaines et de proximité rassurante, mais aux prises avec la violence quotidienne, qu'elle soit physique ou mentale. Elle donne une fois encore la parole à ses nombreux personnages, précisant chaque destin particulier tout en ne perdant jamais de vue leur place dans l'ensemble. Jusqu'au final surprenant et inquiétant. ( )