Geography of an Adultery

November 15, 2021
Riva follows the emotional ups and downs of an affair in this intriguingly oblique debut. Ema and Paul begin an affair after meeting at the French labor court where they work; she’s a part-time counselor, he’s a full-time elected official. Both are married with children, and their assignations are restricted to rare moments. Riva focuses the narrative on descriptions of the confined locations they steal away to, such as Paul’s car, a corner of Ema’s kitchen out of sight of the windows, or a chapel on the outskirts of their unnamed town. Ema grows anxious during the long periods when Paul, who turns out to be a serial philanderer, does not contact her, and she unexpectedly shows up at his house. When Ema’s action does not reorient the power dynamic the way she’d hoped it would, she persists, swept away by her emotions (“her faith in love is her version of spirituality”). The events of the affair take a back seat to precise descriptions of the characters’ quotidian and transitory surroundings, such as stained glass windows and hotel floor tiles; the drama resides in Ema’s evolving feelings, which Riva keenly renders. It adds up to a beguiling portrayal of desire.

December 1, 2021
This slim debut considers how geographical space affects emotional space for Ema and Paul as they, each married with children, conduct an affair. The text is organized by place--the interior of Paul's car, a corner of Ema's house, a tearoom--and after Riva grounds her readers in the details of the setting, the sections explore the impacts of that setting on the complex emotions, particularly of Ema, stirred up by the affair. When the two finally get an apartment, Ema expects an intensifying shift in their connection, but something else occurs. When Ema visits Paul's house, she has an important realization about the ways in which she wants him and the ways she doesn't, something only that setting could have taught her. Riva's writing is spare, and the reader might wonder if the geographical premise receives too much attention. Of note and commendable is Ema's lack of gender-role guilt; like Paul, her spouse and child are rarely in the center of her considerations. The grounded emotional intelligence on display is well worth the reader's investment.

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