The author of King Kong Theory and of Vernon Subutex will publish its eleventh novel at the end of the summer. An epistolary novel where an actress dialogues with an author.
Virginie Despentes is back. The novelist is releasing her eleventh novel on August 17, entitled Dear asshole. This is his first book since the third volume of Vernon Subutexin 2017, great publishing success available in series and comics. Dear asshole will be an epistolary novel where an actress dialogues with an author. A synopsis was unveiled on the site of Grasset, the publisher of Virginie Despentes:
“Rebecca is over fifty, she’s an actress, she’s still as attractive as ever. Oscar is forty-three, he’s a little-known author, he listens to rap while trying to write a new book. They’re defectors from class that the bourgeoisie hardly impresses. They have both grown up and aged in the culture of the tormented stoned artist and are experts in polydrug addiction, but feel that their habits should be changed. not thirty, she’s a feminist, she doesn’t want to forget or forgive, she doesn’t want to protect herself, she doesn’t want to be well. She’s addicted to social media – it takes up all her time.”
Grasset presents Dear asshole like the “Dangerous Liaisons ultra-contemporary”. The cover was unveiled on Instagram on Tuesday, as well as a first excerpt: “Dear asshole, I read what you posted on your Insta account. You’re like a pigeon who shit on my shoulder passing. It’s messy, and very unpleasant. Yes yes yes yes I’m a little baltringue that no one is interested in and I squeal like a chihuahua because I dream of being noticed. Glory to social networks: you had it, your quarter of an hour of glory. The proof: I am writing to you.”
“Violence of human relations”
According to Grasset, Dear asshole will speak “of the violence of human relationships, of ideological postures to which we cling when they have long failed to grasp reality, of the speed and irreversibility of change”.
Dear asshole will be a “novel of rage and consolation, anger and acceptance”, adds Grasset, with a “gallery of portraits of human beings condemned to tinker as best they can with their anxieties, their neuroses, their addictions to the conflicts of all orders, the legacy of war, their complexes, their shame, their intimate fears and finally – that moment when friendship is stronger than human weakness.”
Virginie Despentes recently diversified her activities and created a publishing house dedicated “to the societal issues of queer and feminist culture”, she announced at the start of the year to the magazine. Weekly Books. In association with the photographer and videographer Axelle Le Dauphin, “La Légende Editions” will publish about ten titles per year. The first book will be devoted to the Pulp, a mythical Parisian lesbian club that has disappeared.
This publishing house aims to “promote the representation and visibility of queer culture”, which encompasses minority, non-binary, “and feminist gender identities and sexual orientations, through the creation of a research collective, defense, archiving and dissemination of queer and feminist art and culture”.