What do a legal novel about a divorce, the chilling story of a sadistic gynecologist or a comparative study of Charles Dickens et Prince ? No doubt the personal investment of their authors, who do not hesitate to summon reality in their books, like Emilie Frèche telling Samuel Pattyor Tove Ditlevsen looking back on his youth on substances… everything is fascinating, and worth reading this fall.
Boucherthe story of a sadistic gynecologist
After a serious medical error, Doctor Silas Weir is sent to a psychiatric hospital for so-called “insane” women in New Jersey. Convinced that their disturbed mental health stems from their gynecological ailments, he decides to remedy it. By all means possible, including the most barbaric. Via a diary found by his son, we follow his twisted thoughts and his obsession with one of these women, a mute who becomes his assistant… The fruit of long years of research, bringing together in Weir three highly evil men who really existed ( the proclaimed father of gynecology J. Marion Sims, Weir Mitchellinventor of unbearable methods to “calm” women, and Henry Cotton, director of a psychiatric hospital), the new novel by Queen Joyce Carol Oates shines with its feminism and its bloody acuity. An excellent vintage, which resonates all the more with current events that are still so violently misogynistic.
Joyce Carol Oates – Boucher
We're the bad boy we can bethe tribulations of a writer in prison
When Nicolas Fargues is recruited to lead writing workshops at the Parisian health prison, it's worth the detour… Between some often hilarious personal reflections, he recounts, without pathos and with an assumed lack of distance, these seven intense months. What the prisoners say (or not), write based on themes proposed by Forgestheir (des)pairs, their schemes, their cooking recipes, their humor, their violence too, more or less restrained. Where killers don't always get the job done, and where writers a priori law-abiding schools go illegal to provide kebab sandwiches to their students. A precious story.
Nicolas Fargues – We are the bad boy we can be
French divorceanatomy of a dysfunctional couple
During a trial following their divorce, Antoine and Margaux Maurepas each take the floor and give their respective versions of their marriage. They are not the only ones: their two children, their parents, lovers and companions are also invited to express themselves… And it is very difficult to disentangle the true from the false. Only the implacable outcome will impose a truth that so few wanted to see. Between testimonies at the bar, minutes and letters, this anatomy of a highly dysfunctional couple proves fascinating, and conducted by the precise pen of Éliette Abécassis, who navigates her way through the many contradictions of the human soul…
Éliette Abécassis – French divorce
Dependencethe last part of Tove Ditlevsen's autofiction
Originally published in 1967 and 1971, this Danish trilogy signed by the poet and writer Tove Ditlevsen (1917-1976) closes this autobiographical learning story with panache. Which begins with her failed marriage to an influential writer much older than her, and continues with her different loves, her children, her development as a writer… and her drug addiction, which will devastate everything. Extremely well written, with an abrupt sincerity crossed by a poetry which springs forth without warning, Dependence reports the hazards of a mistreated female condition. But also shines with the irresistible personality of Tove Ditlevsenconfirming that this trilogy would greatly deserve a cinematographic adaptation…
Tove Ditlevsen – Dependance
The Professortheatrical tribute to Samuel Paty
First, there were long discussions with the sister of Samuel PattyMickaëlle, who gave birth to the investigation Course of Samuel Patywhere his program is explained as much as the abandonment of the administration and the cowardice of the government. Then the writer Émilie Frèche began writing this play reflecting on the enthusiastic pedagogy of this professor who was beheaded on October 16, 2020 by an Islamist terrorist. Stunned by the ambient cowardice which reigned during the last eight days of his existence, we witness his conversations with the students, a secularism referent, his colleagues, the principal of the college where he worked. Pasta…A project that is both literary and societal and succeeds in its challenge: to pay homage, as accurately as possible, to Samuel Patty.
Émilie Frèche – The Professor
Dickens et Princecomparative study of two geniuses
What a funny idea, bringing Dickens and Prince together in the same work, and comparing their lives and their respective bodies of work! And yet, it works. Firstly because the great lover of pop that is Nick Hornby (never forget High Fidelity !) has the gift of galvanizing his own lucubrations, and also because his theories hold up. Indeed, the unclassifiable virtuoso musician and the genius of English social literature had both suffered precarious and unhappy childhoods, and never stopped avenging their condition, without ever being satisfied with their abundant creativity. “What matters to me, writes Hornby, is that every day Prince and Dickens tell me You can do better. Do it faster. Do more”. A challenging and informative essay… instructive for both beginners and amateurs.
Nick Hornby – Dickens & Prince
Like footsteps in the snowreturn to Native American sources
1812, North Dakota. The Ojibwe Indians struggle to survive in the cold and famine. In turn, Fleur, who leaves for Minneapolis, Nanapush, one of the old wise men of the tribe, Pauline, a young mixed race coveted by men… In this choral novel which spans the years and scours traditions, express themselves, Louise Erdrich gives free rein to his dreamlike and precise style in two novels written twenty years apart and brought together in one, Traces et Four soulswhich summon as many voices as beliefs in human beings, despite oppression and betrayal. For, it is written there, “life is only worth living if we strip away the varnish, polish and wax to reveal the true grain of the other, and no matter how far from perfect it is, or even how deep down ugly or wild”.
Louise Erdrich – Like footsteps in the snow
More culture on Vogue.fr:
Angèle reveals her 7 favorite books
Prix Goncourt 2024: discover the 4 finalists for the most prestigious French literary prize
Can Taylor Swift shake up the publishing world?
More Vogue France on video:
