Impact - Olivier Norek
And indeed any concerns I might have had were soon put to rest, and I didn't even need to wait to get to Chapter 3, when we are back on the familiar ground of a police investigation in Paris, where psychological profiler Diane Meyer is urgently summoned to provide her expertise in a top secret and highly sensitive matter. She has been called in to help negotiate with the kidnapper of the chief executive of Total oil company, who is being threatened with death by induction of petroleum gas into a glass cage. The scene however has already been set hugely effectively and in almost documentary fashion in the previous two chapters (with supplementary notes at the back of the book testifying to the reality of climate change, in case you didn't already know), with Norek's own particular flair for scene setting to draw you into the drama ahead.
Nonetheless, as tense and highly engaging as the situation is, concern about preachiness is replaced with uneasiness over the kind of dramatic situation set up here; one that has been played out across any number of movies and thrillers. There's a 'villain' who is holding a hostage captive in a secret bunker threatening death if his demands aren't met, the whole thing playing out over the airwaves before the eyes of a captive public. The criminal mastermind doesn't need to interrupt TV broadcasts nowadays however, as everyone can follow developments and speculation in real-time over the Internet. Sure, Norek has an ambiguous spin on whether the villain can be seen as the good guy, but it still feels old and someway theatrically stage managed.
Old but also new in terms of how it reflects the overturning of traditional ideas of justice. As the founder of Greenwar, in Virgil Solal we have a modern day Arsène Lupin meets Extinction Rebellion meets Anonymous. What is interesting with what Norek does with it is not the playing out of the crime drama, but - as the title indicates - the impact of climate crisis. His victims are not the kidnapped executives of big business polluters, but as occasional interludes show the very real and present impact of climate change on many aspects of our lives across the world, we are all the victims. What Norek also does is take in a fully rounded view then, considering not only our dependance on what nature can provide but is increasingly inhibited from doing so, but also how much of a challenge it is (or would be) for the authorities, police and government to deal with someone like Virgil Solal (and indeed the climate crisis) while they are financially dependent on the companies he is targeting.
It's not so much then that Impact risks becoming preachy as just a little 'academic'. Norek is aware of the TV and movie clichés he is playing with, acknowledging them, but using them and using high impact dramatisations of real worldwide climate catastrophes to get the message across. Like Solal however, it's clear he feels he has a legitimate defence, that the message is of vital importance and that it must get out there by any means. Such is the persuasive nature of the stance he takes and the manner in which he takes it that you can forgive a little dramatic grandstanding. Not even forgive, but you almost wish that the message Norek successfully gets across to his readership was as widely as dramatically announced as Solal's. It's no less important and effective than Norek's take on asylum seekers in Entre dux mondes, just as hard-hitting and meaningful, and just as essential that it be translated and reach a wider English-speaking audience.
Reading notes: Impact by Olivier Norek was published by Michel Lafon in France in 2020. I read the French language 2021 Pocket paperback edition. As noted above, Norek's standalone novels outside the Victor Coste 'Banlieues Trilogy' series deserve an English language publication.
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