Men

by Marie Darrieussecq, Penny Hueston (Translator)

Overview

Winner Prix Médicis, Prix des Prix, 2013

The French title of Men plays on a quote by Marguerite Duras: We have to love men a lot. A lot, a lot. Love them a lot in order to love them. Otherwise it's impossible, we couldn’t bear them.’

With her characteristic intensity, edginess and humour, Marie Darrieussecq explores female desire, what it means to be a woman. Solange was a provincial teenager in All the Way; now in her thirties, she’s not a great mother, is a mediocre actress, but in Hollywood she falls for a charismatic actor, Kouhouesso, who wants to direct a movie of Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness—in Africa. He’s black; she’s white—what’s the difference when it comes to love, she wonders?

Solange follows her man to Africa, determined to play a main role in both his film and his affections. But nothing goes to plan in this brilliantly droll examination of romance, movie-making and clichés about race relations. After all, there’s no guarantee you’ll be loved by the one you love.

Personal and political, passionate and engaged, Men is a novel that will make you see things differently.

Marie Darrieussecq was born in 1969 in Bayonne, France. Her debut novel, Pig Tales was published in thirty-four countries. Five other novels have also been translated into English including A Brief Stay with the Living, Tom is Dead and All the Way. Marie Darrieussecq lives in Paris.

‘There are few writers who may have changed my perception of the world, but Darrieussecq is one of them.’ The Times

‘The internationally celebrated author who illuminates those parts of life other writers cannot or do not want to reach.’ Independent

‘Compelling…Anyone who has experienced heartbreak will relate…A moody, powerful book.’ Age/Sydney Morning Herald

‘As a chronicle of the humiliations and occasional joys of loving someone whose own feelings are more ambiguous, though, it feels queasily accurate...A sometimes biting, often sharply observed take on a relationship one would surely rather read about than be part of.’ Kirkus

‘This is an atmospheric novel, written in prose that is at once evocative and compulsive...For those in the market for a nuanced and thought-provoking dissection of race and gender relations and who are willing to risk being infuriated, Men is an easy and engaging read.’ NZ Listener

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781922253538
Publisher:	The Text Publishing Company
Publication date:	05/02/2016
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Marie Darrieussecq was born in 1969 in Bayonne, France. Her debut novel, Pig Tales was published in thirty-four countries. Five other novels have also been translated into English including A Brief Stay with the Living, Tom Is Dead and All the Way. Marie Darrieussecq lives in Paris with her husband and children.

Marie Darrieussecq was born in Bayonne in 1969 and and is recognized as one of the leading voices of contemporary French literature. Her first novel, PIG TALES, was translated into thirty-five languages. In 2013 she was awarded the Prix Médicis and the Prix des Prix. Text publishes her three most recent novels, TOM IS DEAD, ALL THE WAY and MEN, as well as BEING HERE: THE LIFE OF PAULA MODERSOHN-BECKER.

Editorial Reviews

‘Marie Darrieussecq brilliantly explores female anxiety about the masculine, and the desire for the masculine—always such a mysterious thing for a woman—whether he is black or white. This radical otherness takes us to the heart of what it means to be a woman.’—Télérama

‘From Los Angeles to Cameroon, via Paris, Marie Darrieussecq’s novel is constantly on the edge of the fictional and the documentary. Romantic and creative passions merge with political and ethical visions…The character of Solange is the embodiment of a desire to grasp everything, in the intensity of the moment—and the same spirit animates Marie Darrieussecq’s writing.’—Le Magazine Littéraire

‘The issue of otherness is crucial, as is that of the couple. Are the characters a couple, or are they just the sum of one another? This novel and its romance is a surprise from Marie Darrieussecq, but she proves herself to be, as ever, a socially aware writer.’—Paris Match

‘The film shoot in Cameroon is a piece of bravura writing…pages that take your breath away…Jungle fever, the attraction between people from different races—is the jungle here metaphoric or real?’—Le Nouvel Observateur

‘Darrieussecq revisits the clash of civilisations, of two worlds, one supposedly civilised, the other immersed in the heart of darkness…Without a single cliché or platitude, this novelist chooses to contrast a mythical Africa with that of harsh reality.’—Jeune Afrique

‘If it weren’t for her prose, which is like a brooding snake—sharp, sometimes dissonant, twisting—Marie Darrieussecq’s new novel would remind you of one of those slice-of-life films, ultra anti-romantic, no emotional clap-trap…And this novel is all about the cinema…It’s a novel-film.’—Le Point

From the Publisher

2016-07-20
A French actress living in Los Angeles falls hard for a Cameroon-born actor whose obsession with directing a film adaptation of Heart of Darkness leads them both to his home country.Readers looking for a feminist hero probably won’t find her in Solange, the white film actress at the center of Darrieussecq’s (All the Way, 2013, etc.) exploration of race, celebrity, and (mostly) unreciprocated love. Solange is instantly smitten when, at a party thrown by her friend George (as in Clooney, surname implied), she sees Kouhouesso, whose mere presence reduces her to “to silence and solitude. Soon she's sleeping with this handsome, self-serious man, whose “big idea”—a film version of Heart of Darkness, shot in Africa—will always, it’s clear from the start, be his first priority. Kouhouesso will disappear for days in between their encounters, texting occasionally but generally aloof. And so it goes: he works, she waits, and though their relationship turns more serious, it never really evolves. As a commentary on race, Darrieussecq’s novel doesn’t always break new ground (“Up until now she had scarcely thought about Africa, other than to send off a cheque”). As a chronicle of the humiliations and occasional joys of loving someone whose own feelings are more ambiguous, though, it feels queasily accurate. The story works especially well once the narrative shifts to Cameroon, where the details of the film shoot, from an ill-fated attempt to get a group of Pygmy girls to perform for the camera to various prop and costume setbacks, add some real comic edge to the proceedings. A sometimes biting, often sharply observed take on a relationship one would surely rather read about than be part of.

Kirkus Reviews