Totally blown away by this book!
Posted by Jennifer Fulton on
Changer: Méthode by Edouard Louis
Totally blown away by this book! In it in Edouard Louis recounts his escape—both psychological and literal—from a violent childhood home and intolerant village where he was bullied throughout his childhood for being gay.
Fueled by a desire to “take revenge on his past” he wills himself out of a violent, culture-less life into a completely new existence as part of the intellectual elite.
He achieves this with the help of a few nurturing women in his life —almost entirely his high school classmate Elena to whom he devotes half the book.
“Eddy” moves out of his house and in with Elena’s affluent, educated family where both attend an elite high school in a nearby town.
Through painstaking study and practice Eddy becomes “Edouard”. He transforms every aspect of himself—from erasing his Northern twang to wearing dress shirts, to obsessively reading books in an effort to close the gap between himself and his peers who grew up bathed in cultural references.
With Elena, Edouard enrolls at the University in Amiens, and he eventually surpasses her when he is admitted to an elite Paris school and begins life as part of the bourgeoisie.
Absolutely riveting. Brutally honest. A huge coup de ❤️!