Confessions

John Fraser’s latest novel shows how confessions are less about contrition than  about seeking accomplices and pardoners – though there is a nod to various  'confessors' – Augustine, Rousseau. Confessions starts with an invocation to  addiction, those who take on that burden, and those who will take it on or share it.  The story follows the branches of a family tree, rooted in the life of an alcoholic  and his accomplice-therapist, and their descendants. Their children are shown  being forced to confess what they – probably – haven’t done, and to perform a  personal sacrifice in recompense, connecting a funicular between the high town  and the low. Metaphorically, there is a contrast between addiction in the higher- ups, and that of the lower. Crime too is a sort of addiction, involving pardon,  repentance, cures not taken, punishments evaded and selfless accomplices  sought. In the end, what is confessed depends on what you think is good and  bad. Necessity, among other things, seems to decide. The last protagonist,  Clémence, has to choose, as her last resort, a branch of the tree – piecework in  the fashion trade, which may require prostitution too....