Baise-Moi (Rape Me)

by Virginie Despentes

Other authorsBruce Benderson (Translator)

Paperback, 2003

Status

Available

Genres

General Fiction

All Topics

Fiction

Publication

Grove Press (2003), Edition: 1, 208 pages

Description

"A sticky, smashed, sweaty, laughing too loud, broken teeth, drunker than drunk adventure" from the filmmaker and author of the Vernon Subutex novels (Bust Magazine). Baise-Moi is one of the most controversial French novels of recent years, a punk fantasy that takes female rage to its outer limits. The basis for a hit underground film which was banned in France, Baise-Moi is a searing story of two women on a rampage that is part Thelma and Louise, part Viking conquest. Manu and Nadine have had all they can take. Manu has been brutally raped and determines it's not worth leaving anything precious lying vulnerable--including her very self. She teams up with Nadine, a nihilist who watches pornography incessantly, and they enact their own version of les vols et les viols (rape and pillage)--they lure men sexually, use them up, then rob and kill them. Drawing from the spiky cadences of the Sex Pistols and the murderous eroticism of Georges Bataille or Dennis Cooper, Baise-Moi is a shocking, accomplished, and truly unforgettable novel. "Pure payback . . . subversive and exhilarating."--Elle "Fuses triple-X porno, New Wave abandon, and feminist revenge fantasy . . . Risky and different."--The Mercury News "A small revolution."--L.A. Weekly "An underground favorite that will be talked about for years."--Female FYI… (more)

User reviews

LibraryThing member astroantiquity

A novel of transgressive power. I suggest you read this book with an open mind.

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LibraryThing member sadiebooks

absolutely fantastic. everybody should read this book.

LibraryThing member Kurtisdarby

The sex and violence were definitely a major component of this novel, but the title and back flap made that obvious before reading. There’s a good part of the middle when the author really seems to be saying something about the nature of people but it never amounted to more than a few keen

observations. The story moves because the outlaws are moving themselves, so you feel taken along on this adventure, but with two narrators that have essentially given up it’s hard to attach yourself to them. The one thing about the novel that bothered me was Nadine’s character. She definitely felt like an appendage and not a fully fleshed out character. When she’s introduced she seems like Manu, but later she seems weak and pliable then by the end she’s supposed to be the more villainous of the two but I don’t see that development as realistic. Other than that it’s a fun summer read.

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LibraryThing member GlennBell

This is an unusual book in that the main characters are both ruthless murderers. The two women are about as degenerate as conceivable. The end result is that you are not left with a sense of loss when they find their end. Their sexual appetite appears both unusual and perverse. I cannot recommend

the book due to the lack of value. The rage of the women is expressed in a random and self-extinguishing manner. It seems illogical but perhaps there are individuals such as the characters in the book.

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