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Title: An Enduring Achievement
Review: The enduring accomplishment of this novel is the creation of Emile Poulquet, a fascinating character like no other in contemporary literature. Meidav boldly brings us into the mind of a functionary of the French occupation who cooly sent hundreds (?) to their death during World War II. Poulquet is repulsive at times, sly and funny at others, but he is never banal. She does not shrink from showing the extent of his ugliness, but she also makes her fugitive from justice oddly sympathetic. He is vulnerable, imaginative, passionate and horribly self-deluded. His justifications for his actions are comically absurd, but the exploration of his self-loathing is so penetrating, he comes to seem one of us, a very human monster. This is a courageous book; Meidav insists on moral complexity, and forces us to confront our own capacity for betrayal & cowardice. That she does so with great wit, brio and inventiveness makes Crawlspace delightful as well as sobering.
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