Into This Wild Abyss

Troubled teenager Bonbon Bingbing lives in an old mill with Elsa, her weak-willed, naturist mother, Albano, her sadistic stepfather, a director of skin flicks who takes pleasure in exercising authority in the militarized household, blatantly showing the banality of evil, and his cruel children from a previous marriage, Fabrice and Suzy. Albano's determination to dominate shapes the ecosystem that remains ensconced in the domiciliary fabric. Flights of fancy, and a transvestic German, offer Bonbon an escape from the domestic oppression of her daily existence and an entrance into a universe of make-believe, which eventually turns into a nightmarish, Boschian netherworld, where nudist communists are at war with fascist pornographers. In addition, there are curious creatures, including human and animal horrors. Is she daydreaming, or is this real? For her, imagination is usually the last bulwark that the barbarians at the gate are incapable of breaching; however, there may not be any happily-ever-afters here. The novel is a new interpretation of "There's no place like home." Is this story, at once epic and intimate, a surreal political fable in the guise of a Grimm fairytale?