Consent

Sat, 04/24/2021 - 5:19pm by marianaroo

Consent is a memoir by Vanessa Springora, a French editor, publisher, and filmmaker. She is a survivor of sexual assault and her story is testament to the traumatic experiences she had with the famous French writer, Gabriel Matzneff.  

This beautifully written memoir is not for the faint of heart. Although tastefully written, the novel can be difficult to read at  times. It is a chilling account of a vulnerable young girl and the extent to which a predator will go in his grooming process. Le Consentement was a bestseller in France and caused an uproar, so much so, that the government changed the age of consent to 15. It is unbelieve to learn that up to this year France did not have a fixed age of consent.

This book gives a voice to the victim who was silent for decades. Her predator by being a famous writer was well known in literary circles and even published books detailing his affairs. The triumph of this book is to understand the ambivalence, denial, hope and finally acceptance of being a victim and in doing so, and writing about it, opening a dialog to create a spectacular fall down of her perpetrator. In the era of  #MeToo movement. This novel is a must. Bravo!