Authors who changed my life

Hi Charlie !

here is a list of authors who created the person I am today. These are French authors because I started to read novels in French. Also I think that my readings had the most prominent impact on me when I was young (i.e in middle school). Of course now reading still has an impact on me but first I don't really have the time to read full books except during the holidays and I am also more used to literature.

The first author who changed my life is Edouard Louis with his autobiographic novel "En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule". This book was one of my first approaches to French literature ( when I was 12). It tells the story of a guy whose family is composed of factory workers in North of France. When this guy grows up, he discovers he is gay and endures homophobia in a rural, traditional and masculine atmosphere. He describes his book as a fleeing attempt, as something he wrote when he arrived in Paris as a student to understand better his roots and his identity. This book is utterly poetic and pays tribute to life, to rebellion, to love... I was astonished by Edouard Louis's power  because when I read him for the first time I was trying to construct my identity , to find out who I was. I think his words will affect you at any time of your life though...

The second author who changed my life is Virginie Despentes. This French author is famous for her violent, vulgar and crude language ...but who has the right to call her writing vulgar and violent ? Who has the legitimacy to say it's bad literature because she uses a lot of swear words ? Often, it's old and conservative authors who criticize her for being vulgar. Because actually, the violence she conveys in her texts is only the reflection of the violence she lived. And this violence probably echoes other violent events the reader has lived. That is why so many people like Despentes : she enables us to evacuate the violence of our everyday life through her novels. The book I liked the most by her is Apocalypse Bébé . It tells the story of Valentine, a broken teenager who flees from Paris to Barcelona. Valentine has all the issues you can have as a teenager, she feels lonely, she is being insulted because she slept with too many guys, she hates her parents, she is addict to cocaine... Of course it's exaggerated, but I sometimes felt like Valentine even if she doesn't have the same issues as me. Because she is lonely, because she is sad and lost, Valentine is the person you want to identify with when you feel depressed and she instantly makes you feel better. Because with Virginie Despentes, you always feel like you're not alone.

The last author who changed my life and I'm going to stop here because there are too many is Paul.B Preciado.  Preciado is a trans author who writes about the link between politics, sexuality and our everyday life. Actually, if you read Preciado, you will notice there is no separation between private life and politics. In "Je suis un monstre qui vous parle", Preciado makes a provocative advocacy for a complete reshuffle of psychanalysis. He criticizes Freud for being misogynistic, as many did before him, but he goes further than that by defending a more inclusive psychanalysis and more largely, a more inclusive society for LGBT people. In "un appartement sur uranus", a collection of chronicles he published in 2016, he defends the rights of queer kids through a provocative but poetic text called "La Balle", based on the extended metaphor of a ball getting stuck in some children's heart, the ball representing transidentity or homosexuality. 

I hoped you liked this article, maybe I will write another one because I have so many authors to talk about such as Annie Ernaux, Didier Eribon, Desplechin, Adichie, but these 3 are the most important to me. 

Eva