Bookseller Publisher Review
Deception is Michael Meehan's third novel, following on from the award-winners The Salt of Broken Tears in 2000 and Stormy Weather in 2002. Deception's central character is Nick Lethbridge, a young Australian law graduate who makes his way to Paris during the volatile days of student riots in 1968. Nick is seeking to unravel the story behind a manuscript left to him by his French-born grandmother, whose family fled to the Australian outback in the wake of the siege of Paris and the subsequent bloody Commune of 1870. As he works with the attractive scholar Julia to translate and interpret the manuscript, and meets his aged great-aunts and finds out more about his family, a tangled truth buried by history begins to emerge. I suspect this will be a book that polarises readers. Some may think its tone is 'poetic' while others are likely to find it 'flowery'. Some may think of its structure as 'elusive' but others will no doubt be frustrated and find it needlessly opaque and confusing. For those who like to talk about books--be they in undergrad uni courses or reading- groups--there is plenty here to spark discussions. But those seeking a straightforward historical novel should probably be directed elsewhere. Tim Coronel is publisher of Bookseller+Publisher
Booklist Review
Australian law student Nicholas Lethbridge arrives in riot-ravaged 1968 Paris with an old manuscript in his hand and an obsessive desire to piece together a childhood mystery. Nicholas' great-grandfather, Paul Duvernois, was a French activist banished to Australia after the 1871 Paris commune. Communard Duvernois stayed to raise a family on a drought-stricken farm appropriately named Deception after the local mountain. Nicholas' quest is to uncover what happened at Deception to cause his family to abandon the farm and each other, scattering to the far corners of the globe. Nicholas has a few tools to guide him: the names and local addresses of three great-aunts, one who was raised at Deception. Nicholas also meets Julia Dussol, a researcher studying the manuscripts of fellow communard Sebastian Rouvel. Nicholas also befriends Lucien, a local history expert and vagabond whose hygiene habits have gotten him kicked out of every local library. While the prose has a tendency to be overpowering, Meehan's story is gripping. As the novel moves toward its surprising conclusion, Meehan creates a thought-provoking and satisfying exploration of the meeting of history and memory.--Gladstein, Carol Copyright 2010 Booklist
