Elizabeth Lemay is angry at men in general, and rape culture in particular. Take it for granted: if this kind of talk makes you sick, and you think you’ve heard it all (and let’s be honest, a lot has already been said), give it a miss. But if you thrive on a certain kind of committed feminist literature, you’re in for a treat.
After Daddy Issues (2022), a slightly exasperating first novel about the life (and especially the nights) of a mistress, the author with the fluid and literary pen offers here a reflection in our humble opinion more accomplished, certainly more engaging, on male-female relationships, her favorite subject. Clarification: on unequal male-female relationships, would it be more accurate to write. Because the highlight of the subject is there: in the heterosexual relationships of domination and submission, culturally acquired.
Forget the overabundance of confidences (these are rather sprinkled here and there), the author goes this time with a series of reflections, punctuated by feminist references. Think: Simone de Beauvoir, Virginie Despentes, Annie Ernaux, Mona Chollet. Thus, if we are not born women, as the other would say, we are not born excited by power relations either, Elizabeth Lemay will point out. The text, a real invitation to anger (or even revolution) that spanks a little in all directions, still ends on a bright note: a declaration of love… to literature!
The Summer of Anger
Boreal
176 pages