In his previous texts, Denis Michelis dealt with social violence, i.e. an external force. In Under the Influence, his third novel, he takes on a more intimate form of violence, focusing on the harm a person can inflict upon herself, and in so doing, upon others as well. The book paints the portrait of a broken woman who, by drowning her sorrows in drink, inflicts violence on herself.

The author presents a woman with a teenaged son. Under the influence from morning to night, her mind has become permanently destabilized; she is completely out of synch with reality. Married to a man who has left her, unable to acknowledge her decline in status or to cope with the real world, she shrinks into a bubble that threatens to burst at any time. She lies – to herself and to others – all the time, and is constantly getting tripped up by her contradictions. The irony of the situation lies in the fact that she works for a psychology magazine whose theme is women’s well-being…

Under the Influence, a book about lies and denial, is somewhat reminiscent of Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine. We follow the long descent of a character losing her mind, and her teenaged son Tristan’s powerlessness to bring his mother back to reality.