Baise-Moi

This is a book I picked up on a whim, having read the blurb. Written in 1993, in French and translated to English - except for the title - which translates to F*ck Me, so you can see why translating it might have made publicity harder.

It is a book that trades on shock value - there is extreme and wanton violence - gun violence mostly; there is sex and sexual violence - rape, prostitution, even a little incest; and to accompany this there is swearing, excessive drinking and drugs. So obviously if any of these are triggers or make you uncomfortable as a reader, this is not for you. Thelma and Louise? Nah they were light-weights. Manu (Emanuelle) and Nadine are badass.

Without giving away more than the blurb does, we have two young women, who don't know each other, but events bring them together and they discover they are kindred spirits (or soul mates - but that makes it sound hippy and whimsical, which it is not). Together they go on a murder spree through France, leaving behind them a trail of crime and blood.

Probably a feminist work - strong (albeit criminal) female characters, male characters are victims or used for sex. It is written in a surprisingly unemotional way, without a lot of explanation of thoughts or feelings - in other words the actions are described, not the reasoning behind he actions - which makes it uncomplicated. The little that needs to be transmitted to the reader is generally done through the simple dialogue. Obviously I can't say this is how the French version reads, but this is the case with the English translation.

The book and the characters are unashamed in their actions, however the characters are taken so far that they are largely unlikable - especially Manu, who has the harder edge of the two, and carries out some of the more wanton violence. It is also pretty hard to sympathise with these characters who make random acts of violence of the undeserved. I suppose that this will speak to the younger audience - the loss of self-worth, the loss of value for your life, he need to go to extremes to feel.

So I am fence sitting a bit. I enjoyed the read, and recognise that the reader doesn't need to like the characters. It also ended up feeling a bit over done.

So I think 4 stars...