Coco reviewed Changer by Édouard Louis
Anleitung ein anderer zu werden
4 stars
Content warning First Chapter, Thoughts on general theme, no direct spoiler
Really like biographies/ stories about working class upbringing and class mobility and this book made me want to read Louis' previous books and many more books in this genre! I read the german translation and enjoyed most of the book and could relate to a lot. Narration is very straight forward and less ''poetic'' or whatever which I don’t mind at all. Although it felt sometimes like ''just'' recounting his stepping stones towards the middle class. I find it also quite funny thinking how meta his relationship to Eribon and his autobiography is while reading his own autobiographical text. Though I enjoyed the narration of the authors life, I was a bit irritated how he opened this book with the 1st chapter. In general I wished he took more time reflecting and looking back more critically with his sexual encounters, because I'm genuinely interested what his thoughts are since I relate to his position a little bit and would do more justice to the first chapter. It’s like he couldn’t really decide what the author should focus on, his social advancement or his bodycount lol (which closely connected to be fair). Hopefully his previous books offer what I was missing in this rather short book. :-)