Mona Awad’s fourth novel “Rouge” continues her legacy of reinterpreting fairy tales into puzzles that require time and patience to fully understand.
“Rouge” lacks the light humor of Awad’s breakthrough “Bunny,” but the 2023 release features poetic language that creates an atmosphere blurring the lines of what’s imagined, what’s reflected, and what’s real.
Armed with her own experiences as a half French-Canadian and half-Egyptian woman, Awad takes aim at the beauty industry, mother-daughter relationships, and xenophobia.
Character Analysis
Characters
Mirabelle “Belle” Nour
Noelle Des Jardins
Sylvia Holmes
Tad Olson
Hud Hudson
Grand-Maman
Seth a.k.a. Tom Cruise
Woman in Red
Mirabelle “Belle” Nour’s name translates to “wondrous beautiful light,” but she feels nothing of the sort. The single, thirty-something bi-racial woman obsessively watches skin care videos on YouTube and does multiple layered rituals with expensive products every day.
Raised by a vain, aspiring actress, Belle never felt adequate next to her milky-skinned red-headed mother. She desperately missed her father, an Egyptian man who died when she was 5, and sought her mother’s fickle approval as a child. Belle and her mother’s dynamic was forever changed shortly after Belle’s tenth birthday.
Now, Belle is mostly estranged from her mother and has little social life outside of her preoccupation with Dr. Marva’s skin product videos. Her life consists of working at clothing boutique Damsels in This Dress and falling asleep listening to Marva’s soothing voice.
Noelle Des Jardins, 61, is a failed actress who always sought validation from her many mirrors and male admirers.
As she aged, Noelle began to spend more time and money in trying to maintain her youthful features. Fear of aging led her to Rouge at Maison De Méduse (house of the jellyfish) and its many unlabeled products in apple-red jars.
Noelle loves her daughter but finds Belle strange and is disappointed by the younger woman’s consistently gloomy outlook on life.
Sylvia Holmes was Noelle’s business partner. She represents a more conventional approach to fashion, business management and life than Noelle.
She bought Belle of the Ball from Noelle shortly before her death and has turned into a more standard clothier for middle-aged women rather than the cool, fashion-forward place Noelle ran.
Tad Olson was Noelle’s newest boyfriend and landscaper for her apartment in the Eden complex. He cleans windows, waters the plants, and helps around the house.
Tad’s a surfer dude with a toned and tanned body and sandy hair, which is described in detail. He genuinely cared about Noelle, and extended those feelings to Belle.
Hud Hudson is another person fascinated by Rouge. He intentionally runs into Belle around La Jolla and asks her specific questions about what happens at the luxury spa. Like Belle, his mother was also a client who recently died under unusual circumstances.
Belle’s grand-maman rented her Tom Cruise movies like “Top Gun” and “Risky Business” and also took care of her when Noelle left for California to start an acting career. Belle lived with her Catholic grandmother for five years and returned to Montreal to care for her when she fell ill and died.
Seth a.k.a. Tom Cruise is a man who visited Belle when she was a child living with her mother. He entered her world through a special mirror hidden in the back of her mother’s closet.
Seth, whom Belle always called Tom, made her feel beautiful but forced her to pay a very high price for his affection.
Plot Summary
Belle reluctantly agreed to take a week away from her life in Montreal to attend her mother’s funeral and deal with her estate in La Jolla, Calif.
Despite their distant relationship, she finds herself reflecting on their last conversation and her mother’s strange behavior about “going the way of roses.” Belle regrets not calling more often or coming to visit.
She arrives to see Noelle’s apartment is in disarray with cracked mirrors, water stains, and needs serious repairs. Besides the sorry state of the apartment, Belle learns her mother has taken out several large loans and died in debt.
Sylvia offers to buy the apartment to help Belle pay off part of the debt, but Tad thinks she should fix it up and rent it.
While considering her options, Belle finds a pair of her mother’s red “sex” shoes from when she was a child.
Miraculously, they fit her large adult feet and direct her down a path near the ocean to La Maison De Meduse, a high-end spa her mother frequented before her death. The maison is home to Rouge, an exclusive skin care center where the most elite and well-connected go to get a youthful glow and super smooth skin.
Belle quickly becomes a favorite at Rouge, labeled a “perfect candidate,” and is offered free treatments. As the treatments progress, she begins to exhibit brain fog, misspeaks, has sizable memory lapses, and becomes enamored of her own reflection. Her actions cause Tad and Sylvia to worry about her and increase attention from Hud who wants details on her treatment.
Like all dark fairy tales, Belle soon realizes Rouge’s plans for her and other “perfect candidates” in their treatment. She also sees Seth again in the moments she learns the truth about her mother’s decline and death.
The red shoes that brought her to Rouge also serve as protectors to her as does an Eye of Horus bracelet from childhood that reunites with her just before the final treatment.
Belle, when confronted with Rouge’s true intentions, is able to trust herself to be guided to safety. She is then able to reconnect with Noelle in a meaningful way as the novel concludes.
Final Thoughts
“Rouge” is artfully written and demonstrates Awad’s assured staccato style. However, it’s at least 50 pages too long and feels weighed down with deliberate repetition. Red roses, malapropisms, and mirror selves run rampant that cause digressions dragging the plot out.
As with any Awad novel, there are dozens of fairy tale and mythological references. Some of them are “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Red Shoes,” and “Beauty and the Beast.”
Belle is a troubled and vulnerable character who is eager to use lotions, mists, masks, and even painful treatments at Rouge to transform herself.
All these efforts help her align more with western beauty standards of fair skin and bright eyes, but it also takes a part of her individuality and her Egyptian heritage.
By the story’s end, Belle has accepted both her mother’s death and her golden skin with its texture. She’s now ready to begin the next chapter of her life. Perhaps this new life will bring Belle to “most magnificent self” as Rouge promised.
Awad’s allusions to fairy tales, incorporation of word play and descriptive detail ensures “Rouge” will be a puzzling and memorable read for many readers.
Rating
My rating is 3.75 stars out of five.
Book Details
Title: “Rouge”
Author: Mona Awad
Year of Publication: 2023
Number of Pages: 369
