- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Grove Press; 1 edition (Mar 17 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0802138705
- ISBN-13: 978-0802138705
- Product Dimensions: 20.9 x 14.2 x 1.7 cm
- Shipping Weight: 159 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #432,288 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Nadine's sitting in front of the TV, wearing a suit, pushing fast forward to get past the credits. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
Nadine's sitting in front of the TV, wearing a suit, pushing fast forward to get past the credits. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
3.0 out of 5 stars
Shocking and incendiary, but that's the point,
By
Ce commentaire est de: Baise-Moi (Rape Me) (Paperback)
Virginie Despentes is a bit like the A.M. Homes of contemporary French literature--a young woman writer who doesn't really care who she offends with her work. She has another agenda, even if it's not immediately apparent to most readers.This is the story of two young French women, Nadine and Manu, who live in the squalor of "les HLMs," the government-subsidized housing projects outside major French cities. Les HLMs are breeding ground for every kind of corruption--drug use, crime, violence, rape. The two main characters finally snap when one of their friends is brutally raped, so they start off on a campaign of a little raping and pillaging of their own, seducing men, killing them, then stealing their money. Despentes doesn't let anyone off the hook, neither the alleged victims or the alleged aggressors. Her point, it seems to me, is that people today can't help but be a little bit of both. The style isn't particularly interesting or groundbreaking, but then again, it is a translation. Despentes isn't trying to be subtle and artful here, she's more interested in making a point. This is the kind of book you'll either hate or appreciate for the point she's trying to make about contemporary French society and contemporary human beings.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Completely Unsuccessful,
By Hepzibah P. Flurge (New Delaware, NH) - See all my reviews
Ce commentaire est de: Baise-Moi (Rape Me) (Paperback)
This book is horribly written. I thought it would say something new about the first-world culture, about how women and men are both capable of enjoying sex, that S/M can be a positive thing. I was so wrong. This book says nothing, nothing, nothing at all, and it says it for about 230 pages. The kill-sex-kill-sex routine gets old fast. The main characters are so flat and lifeless that it's impossible to care about them. At first I wondered if the translation was the problem, but it's really the fact that Virginie Despentes cannot tell a decent story to save her life.The movie got a lot of press because it starred porn actresses in the lead roles and only the violence was simulated. You should also know that Baise-moi most accurately translates not to "Rape Me", but to "F..k Me" (as an amazon.com reviewer, I'm not allowed to curse). That's about all you need to know about this book. It's not stylish, nihilistic, or groundbreaking - it's just mindnumbingly boring, badly written, and ultimately pointless.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.0 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews) 12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You've misunderstood,
By Position "Vis-a-Vis" - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Baise-Moi (Rape Me) (Paperback)
Virginie Despentes is an anti-stylist. In her prose, she tries to capture the rhythm of the popular, nonliterary mind. She's against aestheticism and the literary aesthetic, much like the avant-garde writer Cathy Acker was. What she hopes to do in this book is to enter directly into the minds of alienated, abject characters, without poeticizing them. This is a very difficult task, and she succeeds beautifully. The translator tried to match this naked, gritty voice as exactly as possible. Those readers who didn't like the book or its style obviously didn't get it, or had to shut their minds off to this harrowing experience of alienation. But this is a very human, deeply touching book. It's brave and uncompromising. The French understood this, but the book has been sadly neglected in this country.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not impressed,
By Shannon Barber "nudemuse" - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Baise-Moi (Rape Me) (Paperback)
"Baise-Moi" (Rape Me), is billed as shocking and exhilarating however, I found it to be neither. Virginie Despentes' writing style (perhaps due to being translated) holds no shocks or punches. This novel is decently paced if at times it seems to be reaching for the shock value. At times the main characters, Nadine and Manu come off as caricatures of bad girl archetypes that are neither inventive nor are they new. I hope (and to give credit to Despentes) that when read in the original language the book retains more of a literary punch. Overall I was unimpressed with both the book and the hype.
7 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Shocking and incendiary, but that's the point,
By C. Miller "Knitter and bookworm" - Published on Amazon.com
Ce commentaire est de: Baise-Moi (Rape Me) (Paperback)
Virginie Despentes is a bit like the A.M. Homes of contemporary French literature--a young woman writer who doesn't really care who she offends with her work. She has another agenda, even if it's not immediately apparent to most readers.This is the story of two young French women, Nadine and Manu, who live in the squalor of "les HLMs," the government-subsidized housing projects outside major French cities. Les HLMs are breeding ground for every kind of corruption--drug use, crime, violence, rape. The two main characters finally snap when one of their friends is brutally raped, so they start off on a campaign of a little raping and pillaging of their own, seducing men, killing them, then stealing their money. Despentes doesn't let anyone off the hook, neither the alleged victims or the alleged aggressors. Her point, it seems to me, is that people today can't help but be a little bit of both. The style isn't particularly interesting or groundbreaking, but then again, it is a translation. Despentes isn't trying to be subtle and artful here, she's more interested in making a point. This is the kind of book you'll either hate or appreciate for the point she's trying to make about contemporary French society and contemporary human beings. |
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