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Les jolies choses
Deux sœurs jumelles, deux personnalités opposées : Claudine et Pauline n’ont pas grandi de la même façon et les adultes qu’elles sont devenues n’ont rien pour s’entendre. L’une est rebelle et renfermée, l’autre est une pin-up ambitieuse. L’une a un talent, l’autre les dents longues. Est-il possible de réconcilier deux extrêmes que tout semble séparer ? Virginie Despentes dresse ici le portrait d’une femme écartelée entre deux choix de vie : compromission ou radicalité.
Le roman a reçu le prix de Flore en 1998 et a été porté à l’écran par Gilles Paquet-Brenner en 2001, avec Marion Cotillard et Stomy Bugsy dans les rôles titres.
Le roman a reçu le prix de Flore en 1998 et a été porté à l’écran par Gilles Paquet-Brenner en 2001, avec Marion Cotillard et Stomy Bugsy dans les rôles titres.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1998
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1508 people want to read
About the author
Virginie Despentes
35 books2,674 followersVirginie Despentes is a French writer, novelist and filmmaker, born in Nancy, Meurthe-et-Moselle. Her most famous novel, and film of the same name is Baise-moi, a contemporary example of the exploitation films genre known as rape and revenge films. Her most recent biographical, non-fiction work, King Kong Theory has also been translated into English, and recounts her experiences working within the French sex industry, and attendant infamy and praise associated with the aforementioned Baise-Moi.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 111 reviews
July 4, 2025
worth reading but a chore to read
May 24, 2019
This wasn't a bad book but it did not appeal to my tastes, nor do I think I was the intended audience. I will trust other reviewers in their claims that there are better books available by this author.
March 4, 2022
I sprinted through this, but there's so much packed into it.
Despentes examines the performance of femininity, there's a lovely moment in the book when Pauline first steps out into the world as her sister, dolled up like a "slut", when she realises that no girl is really like this, none of the artifice comes fully naturally to anyone; and later, she remembers a time when she thought femininity was a trait one was either born with or without, she hadn't yet discovered that it could be performed.
But even more interesting to me than this hard look at the drag and work of femininity is the reckoning of Pauline with the life of her tragic sister Claudine as she takes over her life after her sister's suicide. At the outset Claudine is a blasé, cavalier woman who understands her feminine wiles and weaponises them.
But as Pauline slots herself into Claudine's life the reader discovers the context for Claudine's charms: the twins were raised in an abusive household, and as children Pauline was revered for her intelligence, and Claudine was beaten and emotionally tormented for the inability to impress her cruel father. During their father's long departure the girls hit puberty, and for Pauline it seems like overnight the twins' roles change: Claudine blossoms into a shiny, pretty thing and Pauline, forever the favourite, feels snubbed and like the world has gone crazy because everyone has begun showering love and attention on the forsaken twin.
Of course Claudine, a child so deprived of love, revels in this new attention, craves it, and engages in risky behaviour to attain and keep this facsimile of love and care. This is so particularly heartbreaking because it is such a true, common tale: even my own mother, a woman who I've only ever known to be strong and independent and, at least serviceably, self-caring, admits that for a long time after growing up abused she sought love in the only way she knew how: from men, using the only tools she thought she had: her femininity. With her past revealed, Claudine's nonchalance about things like sleeping with a decent man for shelter when she first arrives in Paris makes more sense. This is the currency she pays with, this is the value she extracts from men.
As children Claudine's behaviour with a puppy could be seen as foreshadowing for her future relationship with men: she locks it away, beats it when it whines, locks it away again to see if it's learnt its lesson, then showers it with affection. Truly though, this dynamic, and the way Claudine is depicted playing with her dolls, is a heartbreaking demonstration of a terrorised child seeking an outlet for the abuse heaped on her. It was really, really heartbreaking to uncover.
The men are another excellent forum for dissemination:
Sebastien is particularly interesting to me because of his Madonna/Whore complex. He loves Pauline for her homeliness, but fucks her sister often, in 'degrading' ways that he wouldn't dare with Pauline. As Pauline embodies Claudine Sebastien no longer values her, finally leaving when he confronts Pauline for cheating on him. He says that he can arrange to fuck Pauline and leave every once in a while if she'd like, but now that she's 'degraded' herself with promiscuity he can't be in a relationship with her, he talks of how he used to see girls dressed slutty in the street and think of his chaste Pauline and feel such pride. So strange, so contradictory, and yet so familiar: how many Johns hate sex workers for providing the very services they seek, how many men expect their partners to be faithful while they step out, how many dudes have slutty girls for practice and marry a Betty Draper for show. I could write a whole thesis on the scene when Pauline first leaves the house dressed as Claudine and encounters various white knights.
I have a lot of conflicting feelings about how sex is depicted in this novel, but I think that's right, because sex is very conflicting and difficult to navigate as a person who's devalued in society based on their gender and their relationship with sex and sexuality.
Sex is largely shown as degrading, transactional, unfulfilling, not sexy, and depressing.
There's also a lot of emphasis on men wanting to "fill all the holes".
My takeaway is that the sex that these characters have is so yucky because the motivations, politics and relationships behind the sex are yucky: fucking a gross man in a position of power over you is yucky, accidentally stumbling into a sex club when you're very much not in the mood would definitely be gross and not arousing, having rough passionless sex with your boyfriend when he thinks you're your sister is definitely complicated and icky.
I think the only good sex in the book is between Nicolas and Pauline. They seem to have a complicated relationship but one that's at least based on a common understanding and possibly mutual respect (or mutual disrespect). Nicolas is the dude character that I have the hardest time nailing down, and I think if there's a rounded male character in this story it's Nicolas. I have many, many issues with his inner monologues about fucking homely girls, about getting hard when Pauline works herself up in a rant, about being able to tell the difference between photos of Claudine and Pauline by whether he gets hard or not, there's a lot of fucking problems. But I don't feel upset that they end up together.
Finally, race is very uncritically broached in this book, and this may be my only real critique of the writing: all of the main characters are white French people. Pauline/Claudine live in a rough, poor neighbourhood, and people of colour dot the background of scenes, women in veils talk and laugh out the window, but they don't speak French so we have no access to their thoughts or personalities.
Policing is mentioned many times, which I find very interesting, but the ultimate conclusion that gets spelled out is that though the police over react and always show out with more force than necessary, the people outnumber them, and a riot could easily break out and overthrow the enforced power structure if someone would ever throw the first stone. Because no real issues of poverty, policing, xenophobia, racism etc are raised, and no person of colour is given more consideration than periphery observations, I read this as a commentary on enforced femininity and the potential for revolt and deconstruction.
Overall I fucking loved this book. I recommend listening to Precious Things by Fiona Apple at least once while reading it.
Also, this is the 2nd book in as many months where I discovered the cover art was created by an artist I adore. Molly Crabapple designed this effective, disturbing cover.
Despentes examines the performance of femininity, there's a lovely moment in the book when Pauline first steps out into the world as her sister, dolled up like a "slut", when she realises that no girl is really like this, none of the artifice comes fully naturally to anyone; and later, she remembers a time when she thought femininity was a trait one was either born with or without, she hadn't yet discovered that it could be performed.
But even more interesting to me than this hard look at the drag and work of femininity is the reckoning of Pauline with the life of her tragic sister Claudine as she takes over her life after her sister's suicide. At the outset Claudine is a blasé, cavalier woman who understands her feminine wiles and weaponises them.
But as Pauline slots herself into Claudine's life the reader discovers the context for Claudine's charms: the twins were raised in an abusive household, and as children Pauline was revered for her intelligence, and Claudine was beaten and emotionally tormented for the inability to impress her cruel father. During their father's long departure the girls hit puberty, and for Pauline it seems like overnight the twins' roles change: Claudine blossoms into a shiny, pretty thing and Pauline, forever the favourite, feels snubbed and like the world has gone crazy because everyone has begun showering love and attention on the forsaken twin.
Of course Claudine, a child so deprived of love, revels in this new attention, craves it, and engages in risky behaviour to attain and keep this facsimile of love and care. This is so particularly heartbreaking because it is such a true, common tale: even my own mother, a woman who I've only ever known to be strong and independent and, at least serviceably, self-caring, admits that for a long time after growing up abused she sought love in the only way she knew how: from men, using the only tools she thought she had: her femininity. With her past revealed, Claudine's nonchalance about things like sleeping with a decent man for shelter when she first arrives in Paris makes more sense. This is the currency she pays with, this is the value she extracts from men.
As children Claudine's behaviour with a puppy could be seen as foreshadowing for her future relationship with men: she locks it away, beats it when it whines, locks it away again to see if it's learnt its lesson, then showers it with affection. Truly though, this dynamic, and the way Claudine is depicted playing with her dolls, is a heartbreaking demonstration of a terrorised child seeking an outlet for the abuse heaped on her. It was really, really heartbreaking to uncover.
The men are another excellent forum for dissemination:
Sebastien is particularly interesting to me because of his Madonna/Whore complex. He loves Pauline for her homeliness, but fucks her sister often, in 'degrading' ways that he wouldn't dare with Pauline. As Pauline embodies Claudine Sebastien no longer values her, finally leaving when he confronts Pauline for cheating on him. He says that he can arrange to fuck Pauline and leave every once in a while if she'd like, but now that she's 'degraded' herself with promiscuity he can't be in a relationship with her, he talks of how he used to see girls dressed slutty in the street and think of his chaste Pauline and feel such pride. So strange, so contradictory, and yet so familiar: how many Johns hate sex workers for providing the very services they seek, how many men expect their partners to be faithful while they step out, how many dudes have slutty girls for practice and marry a Betty Draper for show. I could write a whole thesis on the scene when Pauline first leaves the house dressed as Claudine and encounters various white knights.
I have a lot of conflicting feelings about how sex is depicted in this novel, but I think that's right, because sex is very conflicting and difficult to navigate as a person who's devalued in society based on their gender and their relationship with sex and sexuality.
Sex is largely shown as degrading, transactional, unfulfilling, not sexy, and depressing.
There's also a lot of emphasis on men wanting to "fill all the holes".
My takeaway is that the sex that these characters have is so yucky because the motivations, politics and relationships behind the sex are yucky: fucking a gross man in a position of power over you is yucky, accidentally stumbling into a sex club when you're very much not in the mood would definitely be gross and not arousing, having rough passionless sex with your boyfriend when he thinks you're your sister is definitely complicated and icky.
I think the only good sex in the book is between Nicolas and Pauline. They seem to have a complicated relationship but one that's at least based on a common understanding and possibly mutual respect (or mutual disrespect). Nicolas is the dude character that I have the hardest time nailing down, and I think if there's a rounded male character in this story it's Nicolas. I have many, many issues with his inner monologues about fucking homely girls, about getting hard when Pauline works herself up in a rant, about being able to tell the difference between photos of Claudine and Pauline by whether he gets hard or not, there's a lot of fucking problems. But I don't feel upset that they end up together.
Finally, race is very uncritically broached in this book, and this may be my only real critique of the writing: all of the main characters are white French people. Pauline/Claudine live in a rough, poor neighbourhood, and people of colour dot the background of scenes, women in veils talk and laugh out the window, but they don't speak French so we have no access to their thoughts or personalities.
Policing is mentioned many times, which I find very interesting, but the ultimate conclusion that gets spelled out is that though the police over react and always show out with more force than necessary, the people outnumber them, and a riot could easily break out and overthrow the enforced power structure if someone would ever throw the first stone. Because no real issues of poverty, policing, xenophobia, racism etc are raised, and no person of colour is given more consideration than periphery observations, I read this as a commentary on enforced femininity and the potential for revolt and deconstruction.
Overall I fucking loved this book. I recommend listening to Precious Things by Fiona Apple at least once while reading it.
Also, this is the 2nd book in as many months where I discovered the cover art was created by an artist I adore. Molly Crabapple designed this effective, disturbing cover.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
January 27, 2020
Hay libros que abrasan, y este es uno de ellos. Los buenos narradores usan el verbo y la elipsis y Despentes se desliza con ellos sobre tu mente, manejándolos con verdadera maestría.
January 7, 2016
If I had a twin, we would switch places...
When Pauline's identical twin sister dies, she doesn't think twice about taking over her life. Claudine owed her that much, after using her voice to get ahead in the music business. So now, Pauline wants to get paid and then disappear. But as Pauline enters Claudine's life she begins to understand why her sister committed suicide and soon spirals out of control. Will Pauline end up with the same fate?
Although, the premise did look good, Pauline and Claudine's (the similarity in the names confused the heck out of me) childhood rivalry for their father's love impeded either of them to sympathise with each other. In fact, Pauline's dirty mouth and Claudine's open sexuality (she slept with everyone, even street beggars) made it difficult to feel for either character other than to say "Whoa, their dad really did a number on those two." Eventually, every man in the book (boyfriend, boss, dad, best friend...) all behaved like perverts making me question the author's childhood as well.
When Pauline's identical twin sister dies, she doesn't think twice about taking over her life. Claudine owed her that much, after using her voice to get ahead in the music business. So now, Pauline wants to get paid and then disappear. But as Pauline enters Claudine's life she begins to understand why her sister committed suicide and soon spirals out of control. Will Pauline end up with the same fate?
Although, the premise did look good, Pauline and Claudine's (the similarity in the names confused the heck out of me) childhood rivalry for their father's love impeded either of them to sympathise with each other. In fact, Pauline's dirty mouth and Claudine's open sexuality (she slept with everyone, even street beggars) made it difficult to feel for either character other than to say "Whoa, their dad really did a number on those two." Eventually, every man in the book (boyfriend, boss, dad, best friend...) all behaved like perverts making me question the author's childhood as well.
May 4, 2019
I like her writing style and some of the satirical observations, but I think her Vernon Subutex books are far better.
February 11, 2023
Je préfère les nouveaux romans de Virginie Despentes, son style d'écriture & vocabulaire est plus élaboré et recherché.
December 29, 2017
Durante el primer tercio o más del libro la autora estaba consiguiendo caerme tan mal como Houellebeq y por la misma razón: la falta de empatía con el mundo mundial. Luego ves que guarda un rescoldo de compasión hacia sus personajes a pesar de las carretadas de miseria que arrastran.
Lo voy a intentar con Teoría King Kong a ver qué pasa.
Lo voy a intentar con Teoría King Kong a ver qué pasa.
April 4, 2021
Entre le 2.5 et le 3.
Lorsque j'avais lu la trilogie Vernon, j'étais toujours bouleversée après la lecture. J'étais plongée dans un univers totalement différent et sortir de ce monde me prenait quelques minutes. C'est une des raisons de pourquoi j'ai adoré cette trilogie.
Les jolies choses ne m'ont pas fait cet effet ... puis, l'histoire ne m'a pas autant percuté. Les personnages et le style manquent quelque chose. Je suis un peu déçue.
Bref, j'en lirais d'autres de Virginie Despentes avec plaisir!
Lorsque j'avais lu la trilogie Vernon, j'étais toujours bouleversée après la lecture. J'étais plongée dans un univers totalement différent et sortir de ce monde me prenait quelques minutes. C'est une des raisons de pourquoi j'ai adoré cette trilogie.
Les jolies choses ne m'ont pas fait cet effet ... puis, l'histoire ne m'a pas autant percuté. Les personnages et le style manquent quelque chose. Je suis un peu déçue.
Bref, j'en lirais d'autres de Virginie Despentes avec plaisir!
February 28, 2022
"She and her sister had been face to face, searching for what the other had that she so painfully lacked."
Twins Claudine and Pauline are a study in opposites. When 'the beautiful one' commits suicide, the other assumes her identity for a quick buck, only to be eaten alive by the conditions that make someone one of the beautiful people. Despentes explores the trappings of femininity, its inherent duplicity, and the toll it takes in this harsh and pulpy short novel. By no means the best Despentes work, it's still as cutting and shocking as ever.
Twins Claudine and Pauline are a study in opposites. When 'the beautiful one' commits suicide, the other assumes her identity for a quick buck, only to be eaten alive by the conditions that make someone one of the beautiful people. Despentes explores the trappings of femininity, its inherent duplicity, and the toll it takes in this harsh and pulpy short novel. By no means the best Despentes work, it's still as cutting and shocking as ever.
December 21, 2015
Virginie Despentes est incernable ; je le dis comme un compliment. J'ai déjà lu différents ouvrages d'elle, à différentes époques de ma vie, qu'elle a elle-même écrits à différentes époques de sa vie. C'est peut-être tous ces décalages qui font que, tantôt j'adore ce qu'elle fait, tantôt je ne comprends vraiment pas l'engouement général.
Par exemple, je suis prête à entendre que j'ai probablement lu Baise-moi trop jeune, et trop inconsciente, pour vraiment en percevoir la portée. Je veux vraiment le relire aujourd'hui.
En revanche, King kong théorie et Apocalypse bébé ont été deux électrochocs récents, deux découvertes électriques, que je suis ravie d'avoir lus.
Et les Jolies choses, là, qui vient juste après, et bien : bof.
Après avoir lu la page Wikipedia de Virginie Despentes - qui est, en soi, tout un roman -, j'ai vu que les Jolies choses était son troisième roman : est-ce que son écriture était encore immature ? Est-ce que c'est pour ça que la première partie du roman est un méli mélo qui donne simplement envie de refermer le livre ? Est-ce que j'avais détesté Baise-moi pour les mêmes raisons ?
Ou est-ce que la première phase d'écriture de Despentes est tout aussi valable que ses derniers romans, mais que l'infériorité des Jolies choses vient simplement du fait qu'il a été écrit "en trois-quatre jours sous coke" (dixit la page Wikipedia) ?
Parce que franchement, je n'adhère pas.
Le pitch : deux sœurs, Pauline et Claudine. L'une est incroyablement extravertie, un personnage à la Despentes, et l'autre incroyablement invertie (et ici, je dis incroyablement au sens littéral du terme : je n'y crois pas une seconde, c'est un personnage inexistant, dans le roman comme dans la vie réelle).
L'invertie chante bien, alors elle se fait passer pour Claudine lors d'un concert parce que Claudine veut devenir célèbre, et Claudine se suicide, donc Pauline prend sa place.
Je viens de vous résumer les premières cinquante pages, et vous devriez me remercier, ça vous évitera d'avoir à les lire, tant le début est confus, et écrit d'un style plus qu'hésitant : phrases mélodramatiques averbales et déprimantes. Cliché cliché cliché.
Dans les deux derniers tiers, on retrouve un peu d'intérêt, sans pour autant retrouver le souffle que j'aime tant chez elle.
Déçue, je repars vers d'autres horizons, avec pour prochain objectif Despentes les dernières publications, Bye bye Blondie et Vernon Subutex. Hâte hâte hâte.
Par exemple, je suis prête à entendre que j'ai probablement lu Baise-moi trop jeune, et trop inconsciente, pour vraiment en percevoir la portée. Je veux vraiment le relire aujourd'hui.
En revanche, King kong théorie et Apocalypse bébé ont été deux électrochocs récents, deux découvertes électriques, que je suis ravie d'avoir lus.
Et les Jolies choses, là, qui vient juste après, et bien : bof.
Après avoir lu la page Wikipedia de Virginie Despentes - qui est, en soi, tout un roman -, j'ai vu que les Jolies choses était son troisième roman : est-ce que son écriture était encore immature ? Est-ce que c'est pour ça que la première partie du roman est un méli mélo qui donne simplement envie de refermer le livre ? Est-ce que j'avais détesté Baise-moi pour les mêmes raisons ?
Ou est-ce que la première phase d'écriture de Despentes est tout aussi valable que ses derniers romans, mais que l'infériorité des Jolies choses vient simplement du fait qu'il a été écrit "en trois-quatre jours sous coke" (dixit la page Wikipedia) ?
Parce que franchement, je n'adhère pas.
Le pitch : deux sœurs, Pauline et Claudine. L'une est incroyablement extravertie, un personnage à la Despentes, et l'autre incroyablement invertie (et ici, je dis incroyablement au sens littéral du terme : je n'y crois pas une seconde, c'est un personnage inexistant, dans le roman comme dans la vie réelle).
L'invertie chante bien, alors elle se fait passer pour Claudine lors d'un concert parce que Claudine veut devenir célèbre, et Claudine se suicide, donc Pauline prend sa place.
Je viens de vous résumer les premières cinquante pages, et vous devriez me remercier, ça vous évitera d'avoir à les lire, tant le début est confus, et écrit d'un style plus qu'hésitant : phrases mélodramatiques averbales et déprimantes. Cliché cliché cliché.
Dans les deux derniers tiers, on retrouve un peu d'intérêt, sans pour autant retrouver le souffle que j'aime tant chez elle.
Déçue, je repars vers d'autres horizons, avec pour prochain objectif Despentes les dernières publications, Bye bye Blondie et Vernon Subutex. Hâte hâte hâte.
December 16, 2019
Un livre passionnant, cruel, émouvant, pathétique et ironique en même temps ; l'histoire de Pauline à la recherche de la vérité. J’ai adoré.
December 17, 2018
I give 2.5 stars. For whatever reason I was in the mood for reading something really bitchy, and this hit the mark in a truly glorious way. It's an odd book though; I don't think I will be shoving it in people's hands being like, You've gotta read this... I think I will check out more stuff by this author though!
None of the characters are sympathetic, a lot of the "plot developments" are a bit unbelievable... but I feel like this is the kind of book you would read for STYLE, not for characters and plot. And the writing style is very fun... there are zingy one-liners about gender relations all over the place. I would describe the book's theme as "how performative femininity/masculinity is deeply imbued in Western culture, to the detriment of everyone's sanity." Sometimes the book was a bit too Feminism 101, but I was still digging it. I wonder how teens/younger readers would react to this book? Also, I would love Javier Marias to read this (or the narrator of "Las reputaciones"...) If you've read one too many scenes this year in which male narrators stare at women's legs and wonder what it would be like to have sex with them, this book is a wonderful antidote.
However it was all a bit too unbelievable for me to recommend.... I give the writing style 3.5 stars though! And I will check out more by this author.
Some zingy one-liners:
"She didn't realize... that all it took was presentation for a man to find you desirable. She thought that you either had femininity or you didn't; she didn't know it could be manufactured." (208)
"He treats her like a queen, it's part of the show. It's an image that he creates for women, a moral duty to be gallant with them. Because they are pure, beautiful, venerable. He's old school, from a time when women were truly distant, strange animals, deprived of everything except a man's pleasure... He has to venerate them a little to be able to really debase them." (159)
"He doesn't think he has anything to be embarrassed about, he only thinks of his own enormous pleasure... Only thinking of his own perspective, staring out at others, never thinking of the opposite... He thinks of her as carefree, liberated, precisely the kind of woman he likes. If he knew the actual effect his nub of rotten meat has on her, he would surely think there was something wrong with her. Obviously out of the two of them, it must be her who has a problem." (160-161)
"Why does he fundamentally believe that just because she's a girl she has to rely on artifice or else no one will want her?" (71)
"Eye pads, lotion, soft foaming cleanser, pulverizing exfoliator, mask of fruit acids and vitamin C or ceramide, things of every color, creams for nourishing this or that, silky skin, shiny hair, radiant complexion—relentless battle against yourself; whatever you do, don't be what you are." (68)
"His own distress demanded all the space. He was the most, as a matter of principle. The most tortured, the most sensitive, the most in touch with his emotions, the most reasonable. The one of the two of them that counted, the one at the center." (29)
"Disgust locked away, instinctively, that had always been her way, her exterior was all smiles, loving and serene." (8)
"She is entirely public, approachable, entirely made so that everyone pays attention to her. She's dressed for that... Her appearance, legs on display, silhouette transformed. And no one realizes that she's not at all like that. For the first time she understands: in fact, no girl is like that." (75)
" 'Seriously, this situation was perfect for me. You, shut in here, always there when I stopped by. I come over, I tell you what I want, I show off for two or three hours. After, I give you two or three pieces of advice...' " (123)
"She thinks again of Claudine, who had no one to sleep with, to wake up to, to behave for. No one next to her, concerned with shielding her from the worst." (139)
"He was a force you couldn't even try to restrain, that you just had to endure...He is a sky unto himself, unleashed in a storm, and his voice thunders and rumbles. A disgruntled god... Because the anger of a man is legitimate, one must avoid provoking it." (144)
None of the characters are sympathetic, a lot of the "plot developments" are a bit unbelievable... but I feel like this is the kind of book you would read for STYLE, not for characters and plot. And the writing style is very fun... there are zingy one-liners about gender relations all over the place. I would describe the book's theme as "how performative femininity/masculinity is deeply imbued in Western culture, to the detriment of everyone's sanity." Sometimes the book was a bit too Feminism 101, but I was still digging it. I wonder how teens/younger readers would react to this book? Also, I would love Javier Marias to read this (or the narrator of "Las reputaciones"...) If you've read one too many scenes this year in which male narrators stare at women's legs and wonder what it would be like to have sex with them, this book is a wonderful antidote.
However it was all a bit too unbelievable for me to recommend.... I give the writing style 3.5 stars though! And I will check out more by this author.
Some zingy one-liners:
"She didn't realize... that all it took was presentation for a man to find you desirable. She thought that you either had femininity or you didn't; she didn't know it could be manufactured." (208)
"He treats her like a queen, it's part of the show. It's an image that he creates for women, a moral duty to be gallant with them. Because they are pure, beautiful, venerable. He's old school, from a time when women were truly distant, strange animals, deprived of everything except a man's pleasure... He has to venerate them a little to be able to really debase them." (159)
"He doesn't think he has anything to be embarrassed about, he only thinks of his own enormous pleasure... Only thinking of his own perspective, staring out at others, never thinking of the opposite... He thinks of her as carefree, liberated, precisely the kind of woman he likes. If he knew the actual effect his nub of rotten meat has on her, he would surely think there was something wrong with her. Obviously out of the two of them, it must be her who has a problem." (160-161)
"Why does he fundamentally believe that just because she's a girl she has to rely on artifice or else no one will want her?" (71)
"Eye pads, lotion, soft foaming cleanser, pulverizing exfoliator, mask of fruit acids and vitamin C or ceramide, things of every color, creams for nourishing this or that, silky skin, shiny hair, radiant complexion—relentless battle against yourself; whatever you do, don't be what you are." (68)
"His own distress demanded all the space. He was the most, as a matter of principle. The most tortured, the most sensitive, the most in touch with his emotions, the most reasonable. The one of the two of them that counted, the one at the center." (29)
"Disgust locked away, instinctively, that had always been her way, her exterior was all smiles, loving and serene." (8)
"She is entirely public, approachable, entirely made so that everyone pays attention to her. She's dressed for that... Her appearance, legs on display, silhouette transformed. And no one realizes that she's not at all like that. For the first time she understands: in fact, no girl is like that." (75)
" 'Seriously, this situation was perfect for me. You, shut in here, always there when I stopped by. I come over, I tell you what I want, I show off for two or three hours. After, I give you two or three pieces of advice...' " (123)
"She thinks again of Claudine, who had no one to sleep with, to wake up to, to behave for. No one next to her, concerned with shielding her from the worst." (139)
"He was a force you couldn't even try to restrain, that you just had to endure...He is a sky unto himself, unleashed in a storm, and his voice thunders and rumbles. A disgruntled god... Because the anger of a man is legitimate, one must avoid provoking it." (144)
November 24, 2021
Je n'arrive pas à accrocher avec les personnages, ils sont tous détestables, d'une façon qui ne m'a pas donné envie de poursuivre. Peut-être y reviendrai-je un jour, mais je ne suis pas sûre d'apprécier Despentes en tant qu'autrice de romans : son style percutant qui fait la force de ses essais me déplait dans ce roman.
June 2, 2025
Ni bon, ni mauvais. Se lit facilement mais je n’aime pas particulièrement ce style de littérature un peu choquante, qui se veut “proche du terrain”, bcp d’argot, bcp de sexe …
L’histoire n’est pas plausible non plus et ce fait enlève du poids au message de l’auteure.
L’histoire n’est pas plausible non plus et ce fait enlève du poids au message de l’auteure.
September 15, 2020
Don’t bother.
November 10, 2022
Mon 2eme Virgine Despentes. J'ai eu de la peine à rentrer dedans. Je l'ai commencé il y a plusieurs mois et je l'avais un peu oublié. Sinon le thème sur l'image des femmes, le fait de devoir se plier en 4 pour coller au plus près à des critères de beauté que les magazines, la société et les hommes imposent est un aspect très intéressant.
March 7, 2025
C’est vrmt horrible d’être une femme quel enfer
July 14, 2023
The beginning of Despentes taking herself seriously as a writer. A very smart attempt to deconstruct gender and the performativity of femininity. It felt half assed and fastly written tho..
September 14, 2025
Déçue de la fin, scènes un peu trop crues parfois, mais un style engageant et parlant, surtout les descriptions saccadées un peu maussades des paysages citadins.
May 19, 2017
i'm still looking for "les jolies choses" which the title prepared me for.I've really enjoyed reading it...very trashy and quite intense-lots of sex and explicit vivd imagery..but in the end love is the only thing that saves Pauline from the person she had become:D(i\m not tuining the surprise it's just a bit predictible)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 18, 2020
Au début, j’ai détesté l’écriture, maladroite et brutale. Puis, j’ai compris qu’elle incarnait une façon de penser, de s’exprimer pour les personnages en dérive qui habitent ce libre. Et je n’ai plus pu lâcher ce petit bouquin, reflet d’un désenchantement non dénué d’humour ni de cruauté. Bref, j’ai lu ce livre en un éclair, avec un certain dégoût mais une sorte de tendresse aussi...
August 25, 2015
Absolument génial. J'avais adoré et vu de nombreuses fois le film et j'ai adoré retrouver l'univers. J'ai mis un peu de temps à m'habituer à l'écriture de Virginie Despentes mais après quelques pages, j'ai eu un vrai coup de foudre.
August 30, 2010
Virginie Despentes is a french modern author, a rare that I really like reading. Especially "Les jolies choses", in which lots of poetry can be find within the hard reality of life.
June 9, 2016
Dérangeant mais captivant, Despentes comme je l'aime.
May 16, 2025
Virginie Despentes is probably the most significant French writer of the last half century. If you've never heard of her, then that's only further confirmation of the elitism and snobbery that govern France's literary circles (as embodied by the Académie Française), which do their best to shun anyone daring to enter their lofty midst that hasn't been socialised in their "culture" of privilege and flouts its rules, norms, and niceties - all the more so if the pretendant in question is a working-class woman who spent her early 20s not at in one of the country's prestigious hautes écoles, but as a sex worker.
Ever since reading Baise-moi and watching its X-rated film adaptation that Despentes co-directed, I've been fascinated by her work, an abrasive embrace of the pulpy, nihilistic neo-noirs that were all the rage when Despentes came of age in the late 80s and 90s that yet exposes the toxic masculinity that was everywhere in the films of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Abel Ferrara, the books of Bret Easton Ellis, James Ellroy, Chuck Palahniuk, even the music of Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson, really the entirety of the grunge and nu-metal scenes. This is where Despentes's literature gets so interesting, because she's far smarter than simply dismissing or satirising these trends outright - she's far too aware of the innate appeal of these kinds of lurid stories and perspectives, an affection that's frequently proved detrimental to the reception of her work, short-sighted critics mistakenly slotting it in as pale copies of the styles of these supposedly more "accomplished" male artists.
When Despentes tells these stories of small-time criminals, of abusive misogynists basking in the little power they have, when she specifically zeroes in on the perspectives of these small, disgusting men, it breaks the illusion that there's anything aspirational about these stories because in her stories, which - at least until Vernon Subutex - are almost always centred around the experiences of women, these asides come as a shock, a disillusioned eye-opener that this is in fact how these men, and so many others like them, think and act. Despentes is, of course, an ardent feminist (her King Kong Theory indisputably one of the most essential feminist tracts of the 21st century), but her crowning achievement with Les Jolies Choses is not only that she beats the boys' club at their own game, but that she in the process dismantles their genre, their style, their art as a barely disguised resurrection of patriarchal authority under a new, more toxic guise.
If de Beauvoir said, "on ne naît pas femme, on le devient", this book, if I may so provocately suggest, continues that "on ne naît pas pute, on le devient". It's an essential companion piece to any serious study of capital-P Pop culture around the turn of the 21st century, as the way Despentes chronicles a quote-unquote "decent woman" in her transformation into becoming a generic record label starlet allows us to contextualise the behaviour of many of these pop stars (what glossy magazines and mainstream media at the time misogynistically referred to as eccentricities or the behaviour of divas) as the attempt to exercise what little agency they retained, and in fact in this context we should understand any kind of outburst at paparazzi, any brattiness (god bless Charli XCX for reclaiming that term), any putting on of airs, even drug abuse as a valuable and fully rational act of protest.
Les Jolies Choses is also equipped with an entertainingly twisty plot (although it ultimately fades out rather than ending with a bang) and makes excellent use of the doppelganger trope to situate the good girl/career woman/wife material and the "slut" as manifestly inhabiting the same continuum but merely driven to either end in a performative attempt to eke out a living under patriarchy. Feminist class consciousness is at the centre of Despentes's work, and this involves sticking out a middle finger in particular to women (not exclusively bourgeois women but also working-class women availing themselves of the "slut" as someone that even they, low-placed as they are on the societal ladder, can punch down at) who willingly perpetuate the Madonna-whore binary in the hope of receiving some infinitesimal part of the pie. As bell hooks said, "patriarchy has no gender". But most importantly, as per Pauline Harmange, "Moi les hommes, je les déteste".
Ever since reading Baise-moi and watching its X-rated film adaptation that Despentes co-directed, I've been fascinated by her work, an abrasive embrace of the pulpy, nihilistic neo-noirs that were all the rage when Despentes came of age in the late 80s and 90s that yet exposes the toxic masculinity that was everywhere in the films of Quentin Tarantino, Robert Rodriguez, Abel Ferrara, the books of Bret Easton Ellis, James Ellroy, Chuck Palahniuk, even the music of Nick Cave, Marilyn Manson, really the entirety of the grunge and nu-metal scenes. This is where Despentes's literature gets so interesting, because she's far smarter than simply dismissing or satirising these trends outright - she's far too aware of the innate appeal of these kinds of lurid stories and perspectives, an affection that's frequently proved detrimental to the reception of her work, short-sighted critics mistakenly slotting it in as pale copies of the styles of these supposedly more "accomplished" male artists.
When Despentes tells these stories of small-time criminals, of abusive misogynists basking in the little power they have, when she specifically zeroes in on the perspectives of these small, disgusting men, it breaks the illusion that there's anything aspirational about these stories because in her stories, which - at least until Vernon Subutex - are almost always centred around the experiences of women, these asides come as a shock, a disillusioned eye-opener that this is in fact how these men, and so many others like them, think and act. Despentes is, of course, an ardent feminist (her King Kong Theory indisputably one of the most essential feminist tracts of the 21st century), but her crowning achievement with Les Jolies Choses is not only that she beats the boys' club at their own game, but that she in the process dismantles their genre, their style, their art as a barely disguised resurrection of patriarchal authority under a new, more toxic guise.
If de Beauvoir said, "on ne naît pas femme, on le devient", this book, if I may so provocately suggest, continues that "on ne naît pas pute, on le devient". It's an essential companion piece to any serious study of capital-P Pop culture around the turn of the 21st century, as the way Despentes chronicles a quote-unquote "decent woman" in her transformation into becoming a generic record label starlet allows us to contextualise the behaviour of many of these pop stars (what glossy magazines and mainstream media at the time misogynistically referred to as eccentricities or the behaviour of divas) as the attempt to exercise what little agency they retained, and in fact in this context we should understand any kind of outburst at paparazzi, any brattiness (god bless Charli XCX for reclaiming that term), any putting on of airs, even drug abuse as a valuable and fully rational act of protest.
Les Jolies Choses is also equipped with an entertainingly twisty plot (although it ultimately fades out rather than ending with a bang) and makes excellent use of the doppelganger trope to situate the good girl/career woman/wife material and the "slut" as manifestly inhabiting the same continuum but merely driven to either end in a performative attempt to eke out a living under patriarchy. Feminist class consciousness is at the centre of Despentes's work, and this involves sticking out a middle finger in particular to women (not exclusively bourgeois women but also working-class women availing themselves of the "slut" as someone that even they, low-placed as they are on the societal ladder, can punch down at) who willingly perpetuate the Madonna-whore binary in the hope of receiving some infinitesimal part of the pie. As bell hooks said, "patriarchy has no gender". But most importantly, as per Pauline Harmange, "Moi les hommes, je les déteste".
August 31, 2018
Don't get me wrong, Despentes rules. The Guardian said of her, "Despentes has a compassion and a comic timing that Houellebecq lacks," and when she's at her best I'm inclined to agree. But this isn't her best. Skip it and read Apocalypse Baby or Bye Bye Blondie instead.
The part near the end where was kind of funny.
This bit was funny:
Reminds me I still have to track down an english copy of Vernon Subutex.
The part near the end where was kind of funny.
This bit was funny:
Reminds me I still have to track down an english copy of Vernon Subutex.
November 11, 2020
Virginie Despentes ponnahti julkisuuteen rohkealla ja varsin räävittömällä ja provosoivalla esikoisromaanillaan Pane mua, 1998 (Baise-moi, 1993), joka päätyi ranskalaiskirjailijattaren itse käsikirjoittamana ja ohjaamana myös valkokankaalle. Despentesin toisessa romaanissa Kauniita asioita, 2000 (Les Jolies choses, 1998) on fokus siirtynyt aggressiivisesta seksuaalisuudesta ja ronskista, välinpitämättömästä väkivallasta varhaisaikuisuuden angstiin. Viitekehyksenä angstille on julkisuus ja siitä maksettava hinta. Kaikenkattava ja ympäröivä miesviha on kuitenkin ennallaan.
Despentesin kirjallinen ilmaisu ei ole juurikaan kehittynyt tai jalostunut esikoisromaanin jälkeen. Teksti on edelleen kömpelöä ja takkuilevaa, eikä lukija ole aina varma, keneen persoonapronomineillä kulloinkin viitataan. Lisäksi romaani on varsinkin alkupuolella rakenteellisesti levoton ja sekava.
Romaanin ensimmäinen neljännes on tuskastuttavaa rämpimistä, mutta kirjan edetessä se alkaa saada jonkinlaista juonellista otetta, ja juonessa on jopa muutama ihan kelpo koukku lisäämässä tarinallista mielenkiintoa. Loppua kohden tarinallinen ote alkaa kuitenkin jälleen karata sormien välistä, ja viimeisestä neljänneksestä on puhti taas täysin kateissa. Varhaisaikuisen naisen eksistentialistinen angsti on niin kulunut aihe, että se ei jaksa millään kantaa kokonaista romaania. Toisaalta sitä kautta löytyy jälleen yhtymäkohta Laura Gustafssoniin, jonka mainitsin jo esikoisromaanin arvioinnissa. Siinä missä esimerkiksi Sofi Oksasen kirjallinen ja kerronnallinen kehitys esikoisromaanista eteenpäin on ollut päätähuimaavaa, samaa ilmiötä ei ainakaan näiden kahden ensimmäisen teoksen perusteella ole päässyt tapahtumaan Despentesille.
Arvioni 1,9 tähteä viidestä.
Despentesin kirjallinen ilmaisu ei ole juurikaan kehittynyt tai jalostunut esikoisromaanin jälkeen. Teksti on edelleen kömpelöä ja takkuilevaa, eikä lukija ole aina varma, keneen persoonapronomineillä kulloinkin viitataan. Lisäksi romaani on varsinkin alkupuolella rakenteellisesti levoton ja sekava.
Romaanin ensimmäinen neljännes on tuskastuttavaa rämpimistä, mutta kirjan edetessä se alkaa saada jonkinlaista juonellista otetta, ja juonessa on jopa muutama ihan kelpo koukku lisäämässä tarinallista mielenkiintoa. Loppua kohden tarinallinen ote alkaa kuitenkin jälleen karata sormien välistä, ja viimeisestä neljänneksestä on puhti taas täysin kateissa. Varhaisaikuisen naisen eksistentialistinen angsti on niin kulunut aihe, että se ei jaksa millään kantaa kokonaista romaania. Toisaalta sitä kautta löytyy jälleen yhtymäkohta Laura Gustafssoniin, jonka mainitsin jo esikoisromaanin arvioinnissa. Siinä missä esimerkiksi Sofi Oksasen kirjallinen ja kerronnallinen kehitys esikoisromaanista eteenpäin on ollut päätähuimaavaa, samaa ilmiötä ei ainakaan näiden kahden ensimmäisen teoksen perusteella ole päässyt tapahtumaan Despentesille.
Arvioni 1,9 tähteä viidestä.
June 2, 2018
Bonjour les lecteurs ….
Décidément, je crois que Virgine Despentes et moi, ne sommes pas faites pour nous entendre.
Je l'avais découverte avec "Vernon Subutex" que je n'avais pas du tout aimé.
J'ai retenté l'expérience avec ce livre … disons qu'il est "moins pire".
Certes, l'histoire tient la route, mais pourquoi tant de violence dans les mots ?
C'est l'histoire de deux jumelles que tout sépare.
Il y a la bimbo Claudine qui rêve de faire carrière dans la chanson mais qui n'en a pas les talents et sa sœur Pauline qui, elle a la voix mais qui est tout l'opposé de sa sœur.
Pauline est l'éternelle rebelle et qui est en guerre contre tous les clichés féminins.
Claudine demande à sa sœur d'être sa voix et de faire la &° partie d'un spectacle sous son nom. Elle, gérera sa renommée après ...
Mais le soir de du spectacle, Claudine se suicide.
Pauline va endosser son identité et tout va basculer.
Raconté comme cela, l'histoire est, certes, intéressante mais je trouve que l'écriture manque vraiment de finesse.
Je n'ai rien contre les gros mots et les scènes de c..., et je ne veux pas jouer les oies blanches mais là c'est quand même de la vulgarité et de la violence en pagaille, sans parler des nombreux clichés.
Virgonie Despentes a ses fans inconditionnels… je n'en fais pas partie.
Il a été tiré un film de ce livre.
Décidément, je crois que Virgine Despentes et moi, ne sommes pas faites pour nous entendre.
Je l'avais découverte avec "Vernon Subutex" que je n'avais pas du tout aimé.
J'ai retenté l'expérience avec ce livre … disons qu'il est "moins pire".
Certes, l'histoire tient la route, mais pourquoi tant de violence dans les mots ?
C'est l'histoire de deux jumelles que tout sépare.
Il y a la bimbo Claudine qui rêve de faire carrière dans la chanson mais qui n'en a pas les talents et sa sœur Pauline qui, elle a la voix mais qui est tout l'opposé de sa sœur.
Pauline est l'éternelle rebelle et qui est en guerre contre tous les clichés féminins.
Claudine demande à sa sœur d'être sa voix et de faire la &° partie d'un spectacle sous son nom. Elle, gérera sa renommée après ...
Mais le soir de du spectacle, Claudine se suicide.
Pauline va endosser son identité et tout va basculer.
Raconté comme cela, l'histoire est, certes, intéressante mais je trouve que l'écriture manque vraiment de finesse.
Je n'ai rien contre les gros mots et les scènes de c..., et je ne veux pas jouer les oies blanches mais là c'est quand même de la vulgarité et de la violence en pagaille, sans parler des nombreux clichés.
Virgonie Despentes a ses fans inconditionnels… je n'en fais pas partie.
Il a été tiré un film de ce livre.
September 22, 2018
This was my third time reading Virginie Despentes and it was exactly what I expected: sexy, darkly funny, and covertly smart. Pretty Things sets forth the quest to become the perfect woman by twins Claudine and Pauline. Each twin represents two feminine parables women so often find themselves trapped in. Claudine, the promiscuous, desirable woman eager to employ her sexuality and good looks to get ahead in life, at whatever cost. Pauline, the shoddy, but secretly talented woman who sneers at Claudine’s lifestyle and complicity in her own degradation. After Claudine’s sudden suicide, however, Pauline makes a snap decision to take on her sister’s identity and begins to lapse into the life Claudine once inhabited. Slowly, Pauline finds herself buried in primal desires to please and sees how easily one can be enticed to conform to what society and men ask of you.
What I love about Despentes’ writing is she always makes you question some ugly truths about yourself. With Pretty Things, I thought about the ways I engage in performative femininity every day without even realizing it.
The novel was originally written in 1998 and translated this year from French, but its subject matter is still so relevant. Despentes is vulgar, tough, and not for the faint of heart. If you really want to have your world rocked, read King Kong Theory.
What I love about Despentes’ writing is she always makes you question some ugly truths about yourself. With Pretty Things, I thought about the ways I engage in performative femininity every day without even realizing it.
The novel was originally written in 1998 and translated this year from French, but its subject matter is still so relevant. Despentes is vulgar, tough, and not for the faint of heart. If you really want to have your world rocked, read King Kong Theory.
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