Staff Pick
Who Killed My Father is a searing accusation against the French government and class politics which Édouard Louis charges with the murder of his father. The nonfiction account is a portrayal of a father-son relationship marred by homophobia and the bitterness of poverty, but is also a raw love letter steeped in understanding and honesty. Recommended By Alex Y., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
"Racism," he quotes Ruth Gilmore, "is the exposure of certain groups to premature death." And Louis goes to visit the ugly gray town of his childhood to see his dying father--barely fifty years old, he can hardly walk or breathe: "You belong to the category of humans whom politics consigns to an early death." It's as simple as that But hand in hand with searing, specific denunciations are tender passages of a love story between a father and son badly damaged by shame, poverty and homophobia, but still so alive. Tenderness reconciles them just as the state kills off his father. Louis goes after the French system with bare knuckles but then turns to his long-alienated father with open arms: this passionate combination makes
Who Killed My Father a heartbreaking book.
Synopsis
This bracing new nonfiction book by the young superstar douard Louis is both a searing j'accuse of the viciously entrenched French class system and a wrenchingly tender love letter to his father.
Who Killed My Father rips into France's long neglect of the working class and its overt contempt for the poor, accusing the complacent French--at the minimum--of negligent homicide.
The author goes to visit the ugly gray town of his childhood to see his dying father, barely fifty years old, who can hardly walk or breathe: "You belong to the category of humans whom politics consigns to an early death." It's as simple as that.
But hand in hand with searing, specific denunciations are tender passages of a love between father and son, once damaged by shame, poverty and homophobia. Yet tenderness reconciles them, even as the state is killing off his father. Louis goes after the French system with bare knuckles but turns to his long-alienated father with open arms: this passionate combination makes Who Killed My Father a heartbreaking book.