Claustria by Régis Jauffret

       Emma Donoghue's Room was based on the notorious Josef Fritzl case (well, "I'd say it was triggered by it", Donoghue says), and earlier this year Régis Jauffret published his semi-fictional take on it in France, Claustria (see the Seuil publicity page).
       It got good reviews in France -- but now a German edition is out, and the Austrians are not pleased: Wer zu Jauffrets Buch „Claustria“ greift, hat reinen Dreck in der Hand ('Whoever grabs hold of Jauffret's Claustria has pure filth in their hand') writes Rudolf Taschner in Die Presse, while (Austrian) Paul Jandl finds Fritzl-Roman macht jeden Österreicher zum Täter ('Fritzl-novel makes every Austrian an offender') in Die Welt. My favorite reaction, however, is Klaus Nüchtern's comprehensive take-down in the Falter: 'It's a perfidious game that the author plays with readers here,' he finds .....
       Apparently somewhat HHhH-like in its approach -- yes, Jauffret plays a role in his own novel -- I wonder if the French are getting too enamored of this sort of pseudo-documentary (rife with pseudo-commentary ...) type novel .....
       (Still, I am curious about some of his work -- his Microfictions sounds interesting .....)