ciaochow's review against another edition
Quick, enjoyable and interesting read. Nice to read across cultures especially after finishing Kyung-sook Shin’s Please Look After Mother.
Yesterday we were in the car as my mother was attempting to analyse classism in Singapore, and I muttered, “any discussion of class issues is bound to make the conversation uncomfortable”. But it’s true! No one wants to talk about it - but it’s so inseparable from any particular experience of womanhood.
Anyways that’s just what I wondered as I read about this woman’s experience - crucially, as told through the lens of a man who had ‘transcended’ the borders of class groups. There was something discomforting about reading through her experience, although well written.
Yesterday we were in the car as my mother was attempting to analyse classism in Singapore, and I muttered, “any discussion of class issues is bound to make the conversation uncomfortable”. But it’s true! No one wants to talk about it - but it’s so inseparable from any particular experience of womanhood.
Anyways that’s just what I wondered as I read about this woman’s experience - crucially, as told through the lens of a man who had ‘transcended’ the borders of class groups. There was something discomforting about reading through her experience, although well written.
gorecki's review against another edition
4.0
Edouard Louis always manages to give me a punch, because so much of what he writes about is too painfully familiar. It triggers memories and feelings I’ve worked hard to avoid. The effect of his books on me is twofold: first, he wakes up a slightly masochistic trait in me of feeling comfortable in a kind of sadness inflicted by good writing, then the feeling of strength after realising I’ve avoided or climbed out of “all that”, whatever “that” may be. Reading his earlier works I managed to formulate what “shame” means to me and seeing how honest and open he is about his past and pain made me stop feeling some of that shame. There’s a bit of therapy in his books, hopefully for him as well when he writes them, but certainly for me as a reader.
That said, after 4 books I feel a bit of repetition creeping in. There’s only so much you can say about a family, as a whole, then member by member, without having to cover the same ground. And there is certainly nothing wrong in that, it’s not the repetition of events that I’m concerned with, but the contradiction between being upset with someone and trying to find an excuse for their behaviour. This need to look for a system to point at and say “there, it all starts from there”.
That said, after 4 books I feel a bit of repetition creeping in. There’s only so much you can say about a family, as a whole, then member by member, without having to cover the same ground. And there is certainly nothing wrong in that, it’s not the repetition of events that I’m concerned with, but the contradiction between being upset with someone and trying to find an excuse for their behaviour. This need to look for a system to point at and say “there, it all starts from there”.
boekentip's review against another edition
4.0
Het is precies wat je gewend bent van Éduard Louis. Met dit boek wordt er een extra dimensie aan een van de karakters uit het universum van Eddy Bellegeule toegevoegd. Je kent de moeder al als een product van haar omgeving, van de verlammende invloed van mannen op haar toekomst. Maar nu lees je over haar eenzaamheid, de onmogelijkheid om haar eigen keuzes te maken in het verstikkende dorpsmilieu. Tot ze een knop omzet, haar leven weer in eigen handen neemt. Ze weet op te bloeien zodra ze vertrekt. Éduard herkent de moeder van Eddy niet meer terug, wie is deze vrije vrouw in Parijs ten opzichte van de dorpse huisvrouw voor wie hij zich schaamde en verborg?
luisagerdsmeyer's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
relaxing
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism
Moderate: Domestic abuse
ness_mar's review against another edition
fast-paced
4.0
"Je devenais un transfuge de classe par vengeance, et cette violence s'ajoutait à toutes celles que tu avais déjà vécues."