Lady Cortisol (cortisol is the hormone of fear, panic and depression) is an extensive, delirious story in which a woman answers the exhaustive and continuous questions of a nondescript man. To whom does this voice belong which, on occasion, is self introduce as Massa with the cleaver, Fleshfly, Connected 7591, Answering Machine, Lunaroid, Sad corpse, The one who drinks coffee, and maybe some tea, Fallen into nothingness, Enormous eczema, One legged ballerina, Funny wound, but mostly Croti? And who is the questioning man with the indiscreet, ambivalent, threatening, hypnotic, chaotic questionnaire? Perhaps they're both aspects of a psychotic obsession? Psychiatric session, investigative treaty, experimental lab, hallucinatory or metaphysical experience, dreamy puzzle. Somewhere in between.
The author, having traversed half-lit sections of memory, desire and language, is combining the atmosphere and techniques of monologue with existential thriller. Confessional fever, dystopic fear, farce of despair. A book about the invisible self's thirst, during an extreme and transitory age. After "Aegypius monachus" (2001) Michel Fais returns again to the form of the novel.
