My French Life™ BOOK CLUB - The End of Eddy: PLEASE SHARE YOUR FINAL WORD ON EDDY HERE

[Jacqueline]

I read this book in French when it was first published back in 2014. It's a story that reads within a couple of days, once you start it, either you don't go further than the first pages, or you engulf it straight to the end, which I did. At the time I really felt it was a powerful novel, showing Northern rural France, poverty, dire social conditions, and the sufferings of a little boy who did not fit in, in a very captivating way. It mixed reality and fiction and Edouard Louis got immediate success and recognition at 21. There was a controversy as his family and the villagers he described in such a crude and appalling manner denied the accuracy of this novel that claimed to be inspired from real life. It's a coming of age story, Eddy Bellegueule being a kind of Oliver Twist with a happy ending too . In the meantime the young man gained maturity and his recent interviews and new novel- novella, I should say- are doing his family and particularly his father justice and clemency. He's become softer and holds his grudge now towards society. I feel like both the young man and his books are caught into the turmoil of literature, and that his life and books are part of the whole creative process.