This novel caused the French literary world to explode

It's not easy being an icon. In France, 53-year-old Virginie Despentes is considered a punk writer, a contemporary “rock version” of Émile Zola, a new, female Balzac.

"She is a true influence on literature and debates," writes a French critic. Which is clearly a compliment in belligerent France.

The literary critic Elisabeth Philippe bestowed a symbolic medal on Despentes on the legendary radio show "Le masque et la plume" when she said that no one understands the present better, makes social upheavals smarter and more precisely comprehensible than she. Not even her celebrated colleague Michel Houellebecq? no "Michel Houellebecq was considered the writer's sociologist for a long time," says Philippe, "but in truth he got stuck in the 1990s."

Virginie Despentes, the enfant terrible of yore, has become a star in her three-decade career, and the wild punk author has long been an integral part of the literary scene. Nobody is surprised anymore about her rough style, only that she is not nominated for the largest French literary prize, the Prix Goncourt.

After a five-year ceasefire, Despentes' most recent book was published in late summer, "Cher connard", a modern epistolary novel in the age of MeToo with a typical Despentes title, which can either be called "Dear Dirty Guy" or, closer to the original, "Dear Asshole". can translate.

For French men, MeToo is a bit like the corona pandemic, says Despentes, who came out at 35: “The sooner you return to the old normal, the better it is.” In this respect, “Cher connard acts ' like a literary stumbling block, it's a kind of reminder that the topic is far from over.

"Her life, her rape, her problems and her reconstruction make Despentes a figure of resistance against the violence of the patriarchy and the oppression of women," says feminist historian Florence Rochefort.

Despentes' contribution to the MeToo debate may have come late, but it hit like a bomb in a society that is comparatively reluctant to denounce sexual harassment and violence and still prefers to label many things under the label of the cultural exception of libertinism would. The latter is considered by many to be a kind of precious cultural heritage that is in danger of being swallowed up by the MeToo wave spilling over from the US to Europe.

After the Weinstein scandal in 2017, several well-known French women petitioned the danger of a new prudery and demanded the right to harassment, including Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Millet. It was another four years before star TV presenter Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, the Ulrich Wickert of France, was accused of rape or sexual harassment by 17 women. Poivre d'Arvor denied all allegations.

When the case was dropped due to the statute of limitations, he filed charges of defamation against the women. In the meantime, other women have testified and also reported him. Among them the author Bénédicte Martin, who accused PPDA, as the fallen TV star is called in France, of attempting rape in 2003.

When she complained to her editor, the author Frédéric Beigbeder, he burst out laughing and explained that it was all completely normal, after all she was “a young woman”. Then Houellebecq came into the office and Beigbeder explained to him that Poivre d'Arvor tried to "jump Bénédicte". "Nothing changes," commented the star author dryly. The newspaper "Libération" speaks of a "chain of complicity and habits in the sealed publishing environment".

Despite this cultural resistance, Despentes' novel dominates the debate of the Paris book autumn. After its release, it was number one on the bestseller list for weeks, and it sold over 100,000 copies in a single month. "Cher connard" has become required reading for anyone who wants to have a say.

Significantly, he also plays in the literary business. Because the asshole of the title is Oscar, a famous writer in his forties. On Instagram he insulted the film diva Rebecca, who is easily recognizable as Béatrice Dalle.

The "fantastic woman" of yore has turned into a toad, Oscar trumpets smugly in the echo chamber of social media. After 50, she was “not just old, but fat, neglected, and her skin was disgusting. The type woman loud and dirty.” In a word: “turning off”.

But "Cher connard" is not about assigning blame. The world is a complex mixture of neuroses. Victims are also perpetrators, and perpetrators can be victims. Despentes' novel is a plea for nuances. Above all, she wants to listen to herself again, to accept arguments and difficulties.

"MeToo is a historic event in feminism, the biggest of its kind for my generation," says Despentes. But at some point you have to start thinking again and go beyond just assigning blame: "I'm interested in what happens afterwards." All her books are about violence, she admits, she writes to channel it.

Despentes has anger in excess. Her first book "Baise-moi - Fick mich", published in 1994, is about a road trip full of sex and violence by two young women who have had enough of humiliation and become murderesses. In 2006's "King Kong Theory," she recounts how she was raped while hitchhiking. She was 17 then.

With her trilogy about the social decline of the record dealer "Vernon Subutex", published between 2015 and 2017 at the same time as the rise of the extreme right, she landed a worldwide success. In France alone, the three books have sold 1.5 million copies.

In contrast to Houellebecq, the Cassandra of the conservatives, the 2018 WELT literature prizewinner has not given up hope for a different society. Houellebecq's "expanding the combat zone" and "baise-moi" were very different responses to the same desperation, she says. "It was the same musical theme that I interpreted with metal while Houellebecq made an opera out of it."