Dear cocoon
by Virginie Despentes
More than 300,000 copies sold in France in record time. After King Kong Theory, the most punk lady of French literature returns with a rabidly current novel.
«I have read what you posted on your Insta account. You’re like a dove shitting on my shoulder: a disgusting slut. Buaá buáá buáá I’m a little shit that no one cares about and I bawl like a chihuahua to see if I’ll get noticed. Long live social networks: you have achieved your fifteen minutes of glory. The proof: I am writing to you. Rebecca, an actress in her fifties with a career in decline, responds with these harsh words to Oscar, a forty-something novelist who has just insulted her on social media. Upon realizing that they already knew each other, a correspondence is born between them in which they will lay down their weapons. Both will remember the past and their love for drugs, until Oscar is accused of sexual harassment by his former press officer.
A novel of rage and consolation, Dear Cocoon is an incisive analysis of our society through the point of view of a canceled man, a forgotten actress and a young accuser, in a story that shows that friendship can confront any human weakness. In a novel that is revolutionizing French literature, Despentes displays all the aspects of #MeToo, feminism, social networks, addictions and what it means to grow old in our society.
Virginie Despentes (Nancy, France, 1969) is a novelist and film director. At seventeen she left high school and went to live in Lyon, where she found employment in a record store, collaborated in music magazines, sang in a rap group and worked in a peep-show. Her popularity came with her first novel, Fóllame (Random House, 2019), which was brought to the big screen. Since then he has published Wise Bitches, The Real Good, Teen Spirit, Bye-Bye Blondie, Baby Apocalypse (Random House, 2022) and the Vernon Subutex trilogy (Random House, 2016-2018), a devastating portrait of contemporary French society that has reaffirmed her as an essential voice of French letters. Her essay King Kong Theory (Random House, 2018), first published in 2006, made her one of the leaders of postfeminism.
Robert Juan-Cantavella (Almassora, 1976) is the author of the novel Otro (Laia Libros, 2001) and the book of short stories Proust Fiction (Poliedro, Barcelona, 2005), especially celebrated by Spanish critics. He was editor-in-chief of the defunct culture magazine Lateral. He works as a translator and journalist
Source: https://algunoslibrosbuenos.com/querido-capullo
