{"product_id":"love-me-tender-paperback","title":"Love Me Tender - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eConstance Debre\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eHolly James\u003c\/b\u003e (Translator)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA novel of lesbian identity and motherhood, and the societal pressures that place them in opposition.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eThe daughter of an illustrious French family whose members include a former Prime Minister, a model, and a journalist, Constance Debré abandoned her marriage and legal career in 2015 to write full-time and begin a relationship with a woman. Her transformation from affluent career woman to broke single lesbian was chronicled in her 2018 novel \u003ci\u003ePlay boy\u003c\/i\u003e, praised by Virginie Despentes for its writing that is at once \"flippant and consumed by anxiety.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eLove Me Tender\u003c\/i\u003e, Debré goes on to further describe the consequences of that life-changing decision. Her husband, Laurent, seeks to permanently separate her from their eight-year old child. Vilified in divorce court by her ex, she loses custody of her son and is allowed to see him only once every two weeks for a supervised hour. Deprived of her child, Debré gives up her two-bedroom apartment and bounces between borrowed apartments, hotel rooms, and a studio the size of a cell. She involves herself in brief affairs with numerous women who vary in age, body type, language, and lifestyle. But the closer she gets to them, the more distant she feels. Apart from cigarettes and sex, her life is completely ascetic: a regime of intense reading and writing, interrupted only by sleep and athletic swimming. She shuns any place where she might observe children, avoiding playgrounds and parks \"as if they were cluster bombs ready to explode, riddling her body with pieces of shrapnel.\" \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWriting graphically about sex, rupture, longing, and despair in the first person, Debré's work is often compared with the punk-era writings of Guillaume Dustan and Herve Guibert, whose work she has championed. As she says of Guibert: \"I love him because he says I and he's a pornographer. That seems to be essential when you write. Otherwise you don't say anything.\" But in \u003ci\u003eLove Me Tender\u003c\/i\u003e, Debré speaks courageously of love in its many forms, reframing what it means to be a mother beyond conventional expectations.\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eConstance Debré left her career as a lawyer to become a writer. She has written three other novels, \u003ci\u003ePlay boy\u003c\/i\u003e (Prix de la Coupole 2018), \u003ci\u003eUn peu là, beaucoup ailleurs (\u003c\/i\u003ewinner of the 2005 Prix Contrepoint), and \u003ci\u003eManuel pratique de l'idéal Abécédaire de survie\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 168\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.38 x 8 x 5.46 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 27, 2022\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51766561079584,"sku":"9781635901740","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0974\/9764\/5344\/files\/6aa759344b06c02278a4a1750cae9f91.webp?v=1780294652","url":"https:\/\/ebocreations.com\/products\/love-me-tender-paperback","provider":"The E-Book Oasis LLC","version":"1.0","type":"link"}