Forbidden Love or the Only Love? (The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joël Dicker)

I heard about The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair completely by chance when I stumbled upon the TV series of the same name starring Patrick Dempsey. The story seemed quite interesting and layered — something that, frankly, is rather rare in modern thrillers, where the same events are often chewed over again and again from slightly different angles. Naturally, I was eager to read the original novel. Fortunately, I was not disappointed.

Plot

Marcus Goldman is a one-hit writer. Not long ago, when his debut novel became a bestseller, he was a major literary star. But now the interest in him has faded, and despite his contractual obligations Marcus simply cannot bring himself to start writing his next book.

Realizing that he needs help, he turns to Harry Quebert — one of the most famous writers in America and a man who had been Marcus’s literature professor several years earlier. Harry lives a quiet, almost reclusive life near the small town of Aurora in New Hampshire, and he gladly agrees to help his former student.

However, it soon turns out that Harry himself needs help: he is suddenly accused of murdering fifteen-year-old Nola Kellergan, who disappeared more than thirty years ago.

Certain that Harry could never commit such a crime, Marcus moves to Aurora and begins his own investigation, even though all the evidence seems to point directly at his mentor.

Story Development

The first thing you notice when picking up the book is its size. The novel is more than 700 pages long. It is certainly an easy read, but even while reading it is hard not to notice that the story is rather stretched out. It would probably benefit from being trimmed by about a third.

So what takes up all those pages? Relationships, first and foremost. In other words, there is a lot — a lot — of romantic melodrama.

The book focuses largely on how and, more importantly, why the events unfolded the way they did, rather than on how Goldman & co uncovered the truth. The emphasis shifts away from the investigation itself (which, frankly, barely exists) and toward the story of Harry and Nola.

Because of that, I was amused by one comment I came across about the novel: “This is a pretty lousy police investigation.” And the funny thing is — that comment is absolutely right. In fact, the book openly acknowledges it. The investigation is conducted mostly by Goldman himself, and only later does the state police become involved.

So The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair is not a classic police thriller, and it is important to understand that before picking up the book.

As for the narrative structure, the novel can roughly be divided into three uneven parts. In practice, however, this division is mostly formal, since Dicker plants narrative “hooks” evenly throughout the story. Several times he turns the entire narrative upside down and then flips it back again, forcing the reader to reconsider both the characters and the seemingly quiet life of the small town of Aurora in northern New Hampshire.

Characters

The novel features a great many characters. Dicker carefully describes the residents of Aurora — their everyday lives and their habits. While these details are not strictly essential to the plot (they mostly serve the thematic layer of the story, which becomes clearer toward the end), the reader learns almost everything about Tamara Quinn, the owner of a local diner, her downtrodden husband Robert (or simply Bobo), and their daughter Jenny.

Jenny, by the way, was hopelessly in love with Harry thirty years earlier — and it is hard to say that those feelings have entirely disappeared.

The reader is also introduced to the wealthy Elijah Stern, his driver Luther Caleb, former police chief Pratt, the current police chief Travis Dawn, and many other residents of the town.

But most of the attention, of course, is devoted to the central trio: Harry Quebert, Nola Kellergan, and Marcus Goldman.

And while Marcus himself — somewhat naive and occasionally foolish, constantly getting into awkward situations — receives just the right amount of attention, the relationship between Harry, who is well over thirty, and Nola, who is only fifteen, takes up far more pages than it probably should.

The main problem here is Harry Quebert himself.

Despite being a grown man, he falls in love with a fifteen-year-old girl and, once he learns that the feeling is mutual, proceeds to toy with her emotions. At the same time, he supposedly tries to write a book, but considering that he is not exactly a brilliant writer (something the reader will fully realize by the end of the novel), the result is rather poor.

Naturally, he blames everything on his feelings for Nola and his constant attempts to hide from her, instead of simply talking to her and explaining why they cannot be together. He could, for instance, mention the criminal code — but that is apparently too straightforward.

Instead, the reader is subjected to endless conversations like this:

— I love you, dear Harry.
— I love you too, Nola… but we cannot be together.
— But why? Don’t you love me? I love you so much.
— I love you too, Nola… but we cannot be together.
— But why?..

And so it goes, over and over again.

It is worth remembering, however, that Nola is still a child. She is an idealist who has met what she believes to be the perfect man and cannot understand why there should be a problem.

Harry, on the other hand, is old enough to explain everything perfectly well. Yet instead he pushes the situation toward an absurdity that ultimately leads to tragedy.

This is precisely why Quebert suffers so much. He accepts the accusations against him almost without resistance — not because he is necessarily guilty of kidnapping or murder (the story itself will reveal the truth), but because by about one third of the book it becomes clear that he is, in fact, responsible for everything that has happened.

TV Series

The adaptation was released as a ten-episode television series starring Patrick Dempsey. I could not find clear information on whether it was originally intended as a single-season project or whether the show simply did not perform well enough to justify adapting the rest of the Marcus Goldman novels. Nevertheless, audiences received it fairly well, with a 7.4 rating on IMDb and about 68% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

In my opinion, the creators treated the novel with considerable respect. They did not remove any major characters or plot points, but they did “dehydrate” the narrative, making it more dynamic and far less melodramatic.

However, it also seems to me that they either failed to grasp — or deliberately chose not to emphasize — the central idea of the book.

Big Idea

At first glance, the novel is clearly about forbidden love: Harry’s love for Nola and the loss that followed, and Jenny’s love for Harry that ultimately ended in resignation.

But this is where things become more interesting.

I am not sure whether Dicker consciously intended it, but the book repeatedly highlights a simple pattern.

Harry loved Nola and remained faithful to her even after losing her. In the end, he achieved everything he wanted in life — fame as a writer and a position as a university professor. Jenny loved Harry but eventually gave up and married Travis. In the end, her dreams were destroyed.

The novel emphasizes this contrast again and again: Harry’s dreams versus Jenny’s dreams. One achieved everything, the other nothing.

And this pattern repeats itself throughout the story.

• Tamara Quinn achieved everything she dreamed of — her diner became famous nationwide. Bobo, meanwhile, is unhappy because he spent his life compromising with himself.
• Luther Caleb kept searching for substitutes for the love he had lost, and in the end his dream of becoming an artist faded away, despite the fact that he had every opportunity.
• Elijah Stern, on the other hand — despite being far from a saint — ultimately achieved everything he desired. The book even emphasizes that he remained faithful to his love throughout his life.

It almost seems as if the novel is saying that every person has only one true love. And if you betray that love — if you compromise with yourself — nothing truly good will come of your life afterward.

Conclusion

In short, The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair is less a detective story with a love subplot and more a love story framed as a detective narrative.

The book is full of plot twists and something resembling an investigation — mostly a private one rather than a police case — but all of it ultimately serves as a backdrop for stories of forbidden love and unrequited love, and for the role that love itself plays in shaping the lives of the characters.