The Adversary by Carrere
The Adversary: A True Story of Monstrous Deception (2000)
by Emmanuel Carrere, translated by Linda Coverdale
191 pages - Stoddart

"After I killed Florence, I knew that I was also going to kill Antoine and Caroline and that those moments in front of the television were the last that we would spend together. I cuddled with them. I must have said sweet things to them like 'I love you.'" - from Jean-Claude Romand's testimony

Jean-Claude Romand was known to his family and community as a successful doctor with a prestigious position with the WHO, someone who travelled the world and rubbed shoulders with intellectuals and politicians. In early 1993, he was the sole survivor of a fire he set in his home after he murdered his wife and their two young children. When a relative went to inform his parents, he found them murdered as well. In the next few days it was discovered he had also tried to murder his mistress, and was probably guilty in the less recent death of his father-in-law. It soon came to light that eighteen years ago Romand had dropped out of medical school after missing his exams, did not have any kind of job with anyone, and merely stayed in the airport hotel when he told people he was travelling. He lived off the money he took in from relatives, promising to put it in long-term investments that would generate immense amounts of interest. His life, with his family, his best friend, his mistress, was a complete lie. But he wasn't hiding another life underneath it all; he was just a zero.

This is an amazing and profound book that tells the story of Romand in a personal, intimate, matter-of-fact way. Carrere tells the story as it has been pieced together by the accounts of others, the police investigation, and Romand's own (sometimes questionable) version of events. It's also a very personal tale, Carrere letting you into his thoughts and feelings and speculations on events. Reading the book was an immense and involving experience but now that I'm finished I feel struck silent. There's so many things to reflect on here. Identity and authenticity. Certainly we all tell little lies sometimes, and we begin every day inheriting a history that we have mixed feelings about. But at what point does this slip into completely sociopathic behaviour? And perhaps is there really a force of evil active in the world that enters in at our weakest places?

Many psychiatrists on the case, and external observers, believed this entire charade was an attempt by Romand to narcissisticly avoid and escape feelings of depression that he was never allowed to feel. He denied them until he entirely separated his public self from reality. Now he is a model prisoner, being the sort of remorseful criminal prison officials dream about, friendly with fellow prisoners and prison workers and volunteers, and clinging to a reborn Catholic faith. But isn't he still playing the role that will please everyone else? Putting on an act that is expected of him and will cause the least dissatisfaction and rejection? Is he still as dead inside as ever? Carrere finishes his narrative with, "He is not putting on an act, of that I'm sure, but isn't the liar inside him putting one over on him? When Christ enters his heart, when the certainty of being loved in spite of everything makes tears of joy run down his cheeks, isn't it the adversary deceiving him yet again?"