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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Math Sal’s Open Relationship follows Charlie Costa, a Parisian film director whose affair with Korean actress Kim Yung draws him into her relationship with Rodrigo, a television director who is raising their son with her. Kim persuades both men to accept an open relationship, but Charlie falls in love and hopes she will choose him. Rodrigo becomes possessive as Kim continues seeing Charlie, confronting his rival about what he wants from her. The agreement turns into a contest over Kim’s future, while she attempts to keep her family together. When Kim decides to marry Rodrigo, Charlie faces the end of their affair, but the rivalry has consequences beyond their lives. Charlie recounts it all from his own funeral, knowing the affair led to his murder.
Math Sal’s Open Relationship is an exceptionally inventive dark comedy, with a shrewd understanding of how jealousy can lead to crime. The author draws out the frightening possibilities in everyday suspicions, giving the darker direction of the book persuasive human logic. That skill shows in Rodrigo’s questioning of Kim about contraception, when her assertion that they wore FFP2 masks turns his anxiety into a wonderfully absurd exchange. You can laugh at that conversation while recognizing the serious feelings underneath it. I was impressed by how competing perspectives color the question of guilt, lending the crime an unsettling plausibility. There is, naturally, the fact that all this is set in Paris, which is depicted via settings like herringbone floors in a Montmartre flat overlooking Sacré-Cœur and rain-washed cobblestones beneath a buzzing Indian grocery sign and Voltaire metro. Readers of offbeat adult romantic comedies are in for a treat. Very highly recommended.
