Katrien Deschryver is in prison during the investigation of the murder on her husband.  But not for long.  While the examining magistrate is looking for clues in the dreams and sighs of Katrien, she manages to escape.  But only to end up in another prison, that of an admirer that drags her from one hideout to another.  Meanwhile her family is falling apart.  The ex-minister is hiding out, the brilliant son is being overwhelmed by a New-York businessman, and his wife seems to finally have found the goal in her life when she takes pity on Katrien's young boy.

This is the sequel to The Divine Monster.  It shares the satirical view on the happenings in the Belgium of the late nineties, which are woven through the story.  But a bit too obvious to my liking.  Where the first book was a balancing-act on the fine line between a bad soap and a lovely satire, is this book tipping over a bit.  It's nothing very clearly definable, but it feels as if the people are a little "flatter", a shade closer to pure black or white than in the previous one - with the exception of Alessandra maybe - and the happenings are a bit too recognizable.

Lanoye is and stays a great narrator.  He does paint his protagonists pretty good, and the story certainly reads easy.  Maybe The Divine Monster was too close to perfection, maybe I simply expected too much from this one.  But it's not bad, nooo, I think Tom Lanoye would have to make an effort to drop to that level.