Pat’s answer to “Toward the end of the book it was emphasized Louise was destitute. Why didn't she have any money? S…” > Likes and Comments
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Exactly. I felt like half the chapters were missing.
I FELT like "the why" was she wanted another baby in the household and with the kids "gone" they would soon try for another baby. That was her sick reasoning. I thought this was a terrific dissection of a "mind gone mad."
It's not that she's 'mentally challenged,' she's mentally ill suffering from some kind of borderline personality disorder. It doesn't sound like her childhood was very loving, then she was married to a violent man and had problems with her daughter. She herself was also violent toward her daughter. Louise desperately wanted to belong somewhere and to feel loved and needed. She became obsessed with Myriam getting pregnant so she would still be needed in the household. When that wasn't happening, she became more and more unhinged.
As to the reason why Louise was 'destitute' it's possible she wasn't cashing her pay cheques. Perhaps she was afraid that if she deposited them the bank would seize the money owing on her husband's debts. In any case, she wasn't in a logical frame of mind toward the end.
The Massiers actually have money : they have a flat in Paris, a very expensive town, in an expensive neighborhood. They would probably pay more for the rent than what they actually pay the nanny, if she was legally hired (and she's clearly not : when they say they don't want illegals, they say they want someone with papers, not that they want to hire someone legally.) They go in holidays twice a year, not just once, one of them being out of the country, and paying everything, including the plane, for a third adult. And they were able to afford living in a classy neighbourhood on his salary only. When he tells her that they will be paying the nanny as much as her, it is supposed to be a clear sign of his hypocrisy and dishonnesty when trying to convince his wife not to go back to work, because she would easily be earning twice the minimum wage as a beginner lawyer.
I don't know about your life, but in a french context, yes, they're definitely extremely well to do..
I saw it as if her state of mind was one of "spiritual penury" and jealous dependence no matter what money she had. I think Louise was stunted in her development, a fifty yeor old child herself unable to relate but to other children.
I also believe the author might have tried, and failed, to show her as some kind of victim of inequality. Clearly the Massies were not the perpetrators of any crime, on the contrary, they were a resource. So yes, there is an unexplained gap but , seen how this was based in a real case, the gap might be in trying to force the thesis that she was pushed into the murders by anything but her own sense of futility.
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Diane
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Mar 22, 2018 06:35AM
Exactly. I felt like half the chapters were missing.
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I FELT like "the why" was she wanted another baby in the household and with the kids "gone" they would soon try for another baby. That was her sick reasoning. I thought this was a terrific dissection of a "mind gone mad."
It's not that she's 'mentally challenged,' she's mentally ill suffering from some kind of borderline personality disorder. It doesn't sound like her childhood was very loving, then she was married to a violent man and had problems with her daughter. She herself was also violent toward her daughter. Louise desperately wanted to belong somewhere and to feel loved and needed. She became obsessed with Myriam getting pregnant so she would still be needed in the household. When that wasn't happening, she became more and more unhinged.As to the reason why Louise was 'destitute' it's possible she wasn't cashing her pay cheques. Perhaps she was afraid that if she deposited them the bank would seize the money owing on her husband's debts. In any case, she wasn't in a logical frame of mind toward the end.
The Massiers actually have money : they have a flat in Paris, a very expensive town, in an expensive neighborhood. They would probably pay more for the rent than what they actually pay the nanny, if she was legally hired (and she's clearly not : when they say they don't want illegals, they say they want someone with papers, not that they want to hire someone legally.) They go in holidays twice a year, not just once, one of them being out of the country, and paying everything, including the plane, for a third adult. And they were able to afford living in a classy neighbourhood on his salary only. When he tells her that they will be paying the nanny as much as her, it is supposed to be a clear sign of his hypocrisy and dishonnesty when trying to convince his wife not to go back to work, because she would easily be earning twice the minimum wage as a beginner lawyer.I don't know about your life, but in a french context, yes, they're definitely extremely well to do..
I saw it as if her state of mind was one of "spiritual penury" and jealous dependence no matter what money she had. I think Louise was stunted in her development, a fifty yeor old child herself unable to relate but to other children. I also believe the author might have tried, and failed, to show her as some kind of victim of inequality. Clearly the Massies were not the perpetrators of any crime, on the contrary, they were a resource. So yes, there is an unexplained gap but , seen how this was based in a real case, the gap might be in trying to force the thesis that she was pushed into the murders by anything but her own sense of futility.
