Confessions

<p>John Fraser’s latest novel shows how confessions are less about contrition than  about seeking accomplices and pardoners – though there is a nod to various  'confessors' – Augustine Rousseau. <em>Confessions </em>starts with an invocation to  addiction those who take on that burden and those who will take it on or share it.  The story follows the branches of a family tree rooted in the life of an alcoholic  and his accomplice-therapist and their descendants. Their children are shown  being forced to confess what they – probably – haven’t done and to perform a  personal sacrifice in recompense connecting a funicular between the high town  and the low. Metaphorically there is a contrast between addiction in the higher- ups and that of the lower. Crime too is a sort of addiction involving pardon  repentance cures not taken punishments evaded and selfless accomplices  sought. In the end what is confessed depends on what you think is good and  bad. Necessity among other things seems to decide. The last protagonist  Clémence has to choose as her last resort a branch of the tree – piecework in  the fashion trade which may require prostitution too.... </p>