“An Evening with Claire” is written in the first person, but it isn’t diary notes. We won’t find any autobiographical material in the novel, nor correspondence between the hero and other characters—meaning we won’t get the usual effect of “realness.” The framing of the narrative is indicated in the opening section: the narrator—obviously, a Russian émigré in Paris—comes to see his acquaintance Claire, whose husband is away. In the end, she becomes the narrator’s lover.
From the evening mentioned in the title, the hero begins to recall childhood and teenage impressions—the description of which makes up the main part of the novel and, among other things, turns out to be the backstory of the hero’s relationship with Claire…