Megret, Mallet-Joris, Vialar, Vrigny

Megret's Carrefour des Solitudes is an interesting two-track novel, where the flotsam of war meet up in the persons of a Russian Valkyrie and a black American, and conceive a stillborn child during the only few days of happiness either knows. Not depressing, though. Mallet-Joris' Empire Celeste is a cliche novel about a strip club, with the unhappy former dancer, the immigrant restaurateur with the misspelled sign, the rich unhappy man, the rich unhappy wife, etc. Vrigny's Mougins de la nuit recounts the death of the narrator's father. I'm in the middle of Vialar's La rose de la mer.