“Based On A True Story” by Delphine de Vigan: “Delphine” feels she might “split in two,” then meets “L,” a woman named with first letter of author’s pseudonym.

The front cover of this novel features a woman’s face that is fragmented, and has two pairs of eyes; in other words, the book is being marketed as a story about the author’s multiple personality. However, the back cover has seven blurbs, all of which fail to mention this issue.

In the first three pages, the first-person narrator, Delphine, a writer, says she had stopped writing for almost three years. “Today I know that L. is the sole reason for my powerlessness. And the two years that we were friends almost made me stop writing for ever” (1, p. 3).

However, Delphine describes what had happened at a book-signing for her last novel, before she knew L. The signing had officially ended, but a latecomer tried to get a book signed anyway. Delphine describes how she was feeling:

“If I write a dedication on your book, madam, I’ll split in two, that’s exactly what will happen. I warn you, back off, keep a safe distance. The tiny thread that’s keeping the two halves of my self together will break and I’ll start to cry and maybe even scream, and that could get very embarrassing for all of us” (1, p. 13).

Delphine soon thereafter meets L., a woman who makes her living as a “ghost writer” for books supposedly written by celebrities. I am up to page 92, and no reason has been given for naming this character with only a letter, or why the letter “L” was chosen.

But the author’s real life would seem to explain it: Delphine de Vigan published her first novel under the pseudonym “Lou Delvig.” “L” is the first letter of the name of the author’s own ghost-writer personality.

Of course, it is risky to comment before finishing a novel. After reading the rest, I may be just as baffled as the back cover.

1. Delphine de Vigan. Based On A True Story [2015]. Translated from the French by George Miller. New York, Bloomsbury, 2017.