Bye Bye Blondie, Virginie Despentes, The Feminist Press, 2016, 245 pp (originally published in France, 2004, by Editions Grasset & Fasquelle; translated from the French by Sian Reynolds.)
I first learned about this contemporary French author in 2015 when I read Apocalypse Baby, a novel she published in France in 2010. Wow! I was an instant fan. Bye Bye Blondie is an earlier novel of hers and was not quite as wild as Apocalypse Baby, which is not to say it was not wild.
We first meet Gloria roaming the streets in the rain after a violent fight with her boyfriend during which she almost killed him. She is in her forties, she is now homeless and suffers from attacks of extreme rage. She finally reaches one of her few remaining friends who agrees to put her up temporarily.
Then comes the back story of her tumultuous and rebellious teen years. She spent some time on a mental ward to which she was committed by her parents. In part, this is a story of the cruelty of mental health treatment and the lasting effects of it on her life. Basically the treatment turned her from a wild young girl into a mentally ill young girl.
While in the asylum she met her soulmate Eric, also the great love of her life. They remained a couple after being released and led the way in their middle class French town for all the disaffected youth: drugs, 90s punk bands, counter culture on high volume. The relationship did not survive.
Now Eric is a successful, rich TV star and when Gloria runs into him at a party, the love between them reignites. He brings her to Paris where she lives with him in a luxury she had never known and basks in his loving care. But her wounds are too deep. It is wrenching to read about her attempts to fit into "normal" society and her periodic descents into the rage she has carried for so long.
Yet I kept hoping for her, that she could find peace of mind and happiness without sacrificing her independence. In some ways this is a romance, but a feminist romance. It seems to be a hopeless story. In other ways it is a testament to the uses of rage and violence when a woman refuses to be quelled, molded and deceived.
Gloria takes the path that Elena Greco restrains herself from taking in My Brilliant Friend. She also reminded me many times of Mathilde in Fates and Furies, and of many other heroines I have loved in fiction. Despentes writes with even more power than Ferrante or Groff. The brutal details are probably more than some readers can stomach, but when a woman goes full tilt with her demons and determination the results are not pretty.
Ultimately though, Bye Bye Baby is a testament to love, to a woman finally admitting to herself that emotional safety can be found and acceptance of love does not have to equal captivity. Quite a triumph of great writing and great perception.
(Bye Bye Blondie is available in the paperback English translation by order from Once Upon A Time Bookstore.)
I wholeheartedly agree with this sentence: "...but when a woman goes full tilt with her demons and determination the results are not pretty." Great review, Judy. I think you did this heroine justice, and so with the book.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carmen! Last night we watched Spring, a movie I learned about from you. I left a comment on your review.
DeleteI saw it and replied. Thanks for giving Spring a chance. I always love to hear back if people try my suggestions and whether they liked it. Glad you enjoyed it; it was different for sure, but also beautiful and unique.
DeleteI said in the previous post's comment that this novel's cover suggests a graphic novel. I see it's nothing of that sort.
DeleteGood. I will go read your reply.
DeleteSounds like quite a read! I like these kinds of reads despite the difficulty of dealing with difficult topics like mental illness and "the cruelty of mental health treatment and the lasting effects" they have on people... But I have to be in the right frame to read these type of heavy topics.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of Roxane Gay's novel, An Untamed State, which I read earlier this year. It was an excellent novel, but one that was difficult to read due to the brutal topics discussed in the novel. Excellent writers have a way of sharing difficult topics in a new light.
Yes, I understand. Small doses are quite enough. But excellent writers are who we count on.
DeleteAnd yet again you have introduced me to a writer who was previously unknown to me. Interesting review and the writer does sound like someone I should get to know better.
ReplyDeleteI follow the Best Translated Book Award each year on a site called Three Percent: http://www.rochester.edu/College/translation/threepercent/. They review all the long list and short list books leading up to the award. That is where I discovered Virginie Despentes.
DeleteWhat a cover! Go Blondie! A wee bit of anger there. Where did you hear about this novel?
ReplyDeleteOne year I was following the long list and short list for the Best Translated Book Award and learned about Despentes. So I read Apocalypse Baby first and found it great, sort of a feminist thriller set in France. I wanted to read more!
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