Perplexity will be Igor Bergler’s fifth novel. Noir and written in the first person, the book will surprise Bergler’s Romanian fans, and they won’t be alone. Readers should prepare for eye-openers that go beyond anything in the preceding novels. Perplexity maintains Bergler’s signature thriller dimension with police intrigue, cultural games and parodic references, but the tone is tougher here, and the world in the protagonist’s head is sinister. There’s no room left for hope. While in the earlier books, the positive characters keep a healthy distance from the dark world that surrounds them, here Stanley Gog Rogue (a play on words in which GOG stands for Gone Rogue, which is to say, the character has exited the system in sign of opposition), is so much in the midst of events that one never knows what’s real or what’s happening in Stanley’s mind alone. This novel is built entirely on a character drawn from the greats of noir fiction, American noir movies from the ‘50s and French cinema noir from the 60’s, though the perspective is contemporary.
