Reading: Baise-Moi

 Recently I finished reading Baise-Moi, the controversial French novel by author Virginie Despentes (who also co-directed the film adaptation which was initially banned in France!) for the other book club I'm in. I hadn't seen the film yet and was unsure of how I'd respond to the book given its reputation- but as heavy as it gets, there's something grimly humorous and very cathartic about it. It is also, without a doubt, an incredibly feminist novel, which makes the experience very different.

--- Just a heads up, my review involves discussions of rape and sexual violence, though not in graphic detail. The book is pretty intense!

    Two women end up going on a rampage of murder and theft after life pushes them to a breaking point. The story follows each woman up to said breaking point and to their chance encounter, wherein they find each other to be kindred spirits. Both girls are from poor working class neighborhoods and are deeply interested in filth and self indulgence. Manu's final straw is a horrific gang-rape of her and a female friend who does not survive the encounter, and it sets her on a rampage, killing men who've both wronged her and wronged others in her life. The background of poverty and police violence play a huge role in these choices. Nadine, a prostitute, is driven to murder her prudish and cloying room mate after finding out that her best friend is now also wanted for murder. When the two meet, it suddenly stops being about revenge on specific people, but rather a broader revenge on society as they fuck, party, drink, steal, and murder their way from town to town. 

    No one is spared from their thrill-seeking murder spree except for- oddly enough- Arabs, on Manu's insistence. This felt like a really interesting choice and a very political one, entwined with the book's overall commentary on class, the violence of policing, and France's treatment of migrants as part of the class struggle. I wouldn't be shocked if this was more offensive to the French sensibilities than all the rape, sex and murder in the book.

    One of the surprising strengths of the book is how much you do end up liking and rooting for Nadine and Manu, even if they're also despicable in a lot of ways (but very justified in others). You also understand that they're essentially on a self destructive mission, both planning against "making plans", with the expectation that their rampage is likely to end with their own deaths. And as a reader, I still found myself rooting for them while knowing full well a story like this can't by its very nature have a "happy" ending. I love when a story handles that type of character exceptionally well.

    The book also has a highly readable and casual feeling style, like you're crossfaded at a party and listening to a really engaging friend tell you a wild story. It's a real page-turner, even if some of the content- the violence especially- is pretty gnarly. Part of the fun is just seeing where things escalate to next. I do think it's interesting to think about what parts make me uncomfortable and what feels like too much. I feel like having these "too far" moments work to not totally distance the reader from the violent acts that Nadine and Manu commit. It's in part about breaking all taboos and cutting loose fully, but I also feel it's what keeps the book more grounded than something like, say, Natural Born Killers, which just comes off as more juvenile in a lot of ways.

    What I found so refreshing too is that Baise-Moi really is a celebration of filth. Nadine is obsessed with pornography and both her and Manu relish in cheap thrills and reckless sex. It's rare to see female sexuality in such an unrelenting and unrestrained form. For a bit of added context, Despentes herself did various forms of sex work herself and also was a "film critic for pornography" as I've seen quoted around the net (I would love to read her reviews of porn tbh) and I think that explains how earnest and celebratory the story can be about sex- while also being very blatant about the violence from men as well as all the little annoyances that come from them. So much of this is wrapped up into discussions of class as well. Despentes is also a survivor of gang-rape, and indeed that is very much reflected in how harrowing and personal the book's rape scene is and how realistic it felt. Absolute gut-punch.

    It's probably bizarre to write all this out and then say "this book is fun" but it's true. I really liked this book. It has a very darkly humorous punk-rock sensibility. Again, a certain feeling of catharsis comes in reading it, especially if you relate in any way to the main characters' experiences of gendered violence. It's a fantasy of letting loose, of rejecting everything of a "polite" society that tolerates and enables all forms of violence upon those deemed lesser.

    I'd seen that Thelma and Louise come up a lot as a comparison point but that makes little sense to me. Abetter comparison point might be Multiple Maniacs or Pink Flamingos in terms of tone and a commitment to disrupting social norms in extreme ways. I think that's also apt because there's definitely a queerness to Baise-Moi, with Manu and Nadine described as soulmates, though they never have sex- instead being comfortable masturbating in front of one another and having sex with men in front of each other. The two women also regularly size up and assess other women's attractiveness in various ways. It's all very charged! 

If you can stomach the violence, I'd definitely recommend this to anyone wanting to branch out into more subversive and transgressive fiction. It felt like a really valuable read- though part of me wishes I'd come to Despentes work sooner.