I’m not sure I can say I actually enjoyed this exploration of the underbelly of Parisian life, but I did find it strangely compelling. I haven’t read Vernon Subutex 1 – and I don’t feel impelled to enter his world any further – but in that first volume of the trilogy Vernon ran a record shop and developed a sort of cult following. Now he’s lost everything and is sleeping rough, but he still has his followers as he has in his possession the last recordings of musician Alex Bleach, and Bleach’s followers want to track Vernon down to see the tapes. A community of down-&-outers, drug users, drunks, homeless, porn stars and various other low life people this book, all connected in one way or another, and the novel is a relentless ride through their lives. The writing is accomplished and authentic as far as I can tell, and this carried me through the somewhat unpalatable storyline.

And so with Book 2 we pick up where we left Vernon at the end of the first book – homeless, and somehow in possession of video footage everyone wants hold of….

If you liked (loved?) Part 1 then you will further immerse yourself in the world created by Virginie Despentes, a Paris and a story that gives voice to the marginalised, the dispossessed, the extremes of society. The word ‘rambunctious’ popped into my head half-way through this. Now, given that it’s a word I don’t think I have ever knowingly used in conversation in my life, I somehow feel that it’s entirely appropriate: uncontrollably exuberant, boisterous. The book sweeps along, covering Despentes’ favourite themes – politics, society, immigration, extremism, religion, music – and as the book progresses some of the minor characters from book 1 become more filled-out. Stories become more and more intertwined as Vernon himself becomes less the focus of our attention and more the figure around whom all the other characters orbit. Indeed, as in his previous life when everyone hung out in his record store, now everyone hangs out in the park where he sleeps rough, to discuss every subject under the sun, while Vernon sits serene, surrounded by his ‘sect’ or ‘gang’ as various characters refer to it.

The plot is, well, complicated – this is not the place to go into that. Suffice to say that it develops from Book 1 in ways that seem to snowball out of control. At its heart is music: music as communion, as salvation, as freedom, and as escape. Despentes shamelessly drops in references to innumerable tracks that will have you searching them out on your personal choice of website – there is a soundtrack to the books that is irresistible. And then there is Paris itself – Despentes has created an almost Dickensian city, a gritty world populated by oddities and characters who are seldom wholly likeable, sometimes downright nasty, but always vivid. It is Dickens transplanted to another place, another time, where drugs and violence and music are the backdrop.

I genuinely can’t wait until Book 3 gets published in English. I am tempted to try out my very rusty school French on an original language version just to see how the story ends. But then again, maybe I’ll wait... 4 stars for this, as I gave Book 1 – I’ll wait until Book 3 before I venture into 5-star territory.

Vernon Subutex is living in the streets of Paris now; he found a quite comfortable place in the parc des Buttes Chaumont and doesn’t really care about his old acquaintances. But they show up one after the other since there are still things going on all connected to him. First of all, Emilie’s apartment was broken into and Vernon’s rucksack has been stolen. He didn’t really care about it, but he had something that many people were keen on seeing destroyed: tapes with recordings of Vernon’s and Alex Bleach’s discussions in which the later and now dead musician reveals that Vodka Satana hasn’t died from an overdose but was killed. A whole bunch of people gathers on the Parisian hill, all grieving their own kind of loss, searching for meaning in their life and finding in Vernon the piece that holds them all together.

I liked the second instalment of the Vernon Subutex series a lot more than the first. I had the impression that the different stories which are told somehow better fit together and they are a lot more interesting than in the first. Even though Vernon Subutex still gives the novel the title and he is definitely the linking item between all of the characters, he just plays a minor role here.

It is not obvious from the beginning how all the characters relate, sometimes it needs a longer explanation to reveal the missing link. But Virginie Despentes has equipped them all with stunning lives that are not only interesting to read but also very diverse and each offer something completely new. What she manages in this way is to offer a broad picture of the French society, especially since her characters come from all kinds of classes and normally they wouldn’t really interact. But here, it does not only work, but it is convincing and great to read.