The Boy Who Loved Dolls (John A Scott, Puncher & Wattmann)

Set in 1987 in Victoria, The Boy Who Loved Dolls by John A Scott (N, What I Have Written) initially follows the conversations between two protagonists: Jean-Jacques Baille, a lauded, retired French auteur in the vein of Bertolucci or Antonioni, and Susan Vaughan, a 27-year-old critic who is making a documentary about the director’s background and filmography. Things take a turn, however, when discussions on the mimetic properties in Baille’s art lead Vaughan down a dark path, at the end of which lies the truth behind the shocking disappearance of Baille’s wife and muse, Anna, several years earlier.

In the hands of a less adept author, the various plot points, philosophical musings and formal shapeshifting could easily cause the novel to derail. However, Scott masterfully braids his numerous strands together to create a work that is as enthralling as it is terrifying: analyses of French surrealist film theory meld with meditations on war and atonement in ways that feel perfect and strange, while speculations on the Orphic myth dissolve wonderfully into explorations of the uncanny, the authorship theories of French essayist Roland Barthes, and art’s capacity – along with its limitations – to expose buried truths.

Readers who enjoy the philosophical explorations of history, myth and the body in Olga Tokarczuk’s work will find much to enjoy here. And viewers of David Fincher’s Zodiac and Bong Joon Ho’s Memories of Murder will appreciate Scott’s ability to write one cliffhanger after another.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Alex Durac is a writer and editor. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

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