I really liked this book, it was funny at times, made me think during other moments. Traveling memoirs will always be my jam, and this one being written in such a specific way that is two friends sending emails to each other, made it all the more appreciable.
Still not something life changing or particularly jaw-dropping, but a very pleasant moment, with the potential for some life inspiration !

Near perfection ! A hilarious travel memoir, that mixes elements of journalism ( my former job ) and sociology ( my all time passion ). I'm not giving it the full 5 stars prize because I simply did not feel this book as if it earned this rating. But that's only a feeling, to be honest, and this is one of these books that I'll be thinking fondly about for a long time.

Difficile de définir ce grand classique de la littérature, sincèrement.

D'une très grande qualité d'écriture, il n'en reste pas moins relativement peu à mon goût personnel. 
Bien que proposant de grandes pistes de réflexion sur l'avenir de la société, il n'a pas réussi à me plonger dans l'abîme méditatif qui succède aux romans me bouleversant le plus.
Si ce n'est qu'à la fin du livre que le rythme s'accélère, c'est aussi à ce moment que j'ai ralenti ma lecture, l'échange entre John et Mustapha Meunier s'avérant enfin éveiller mon âme d'éternelle révoltée. 

C'est donc un livre assez paradoxal que celui-ci, et un univers dystopique qui vous rappellera assez, cependant, et redoutablement... 
Le nôtre.

Un livre incroyablement bon, et un coeur indubitablement brisé, encore et encore, par une histoire qui en avait fait la promesse dès le départ.
La grande surprise, c'est la tournure "humaine" qu'a pris l'histoire, considérant le synopsis ; on part sur une dystopie tragique à la Servante Écarlate, et on arrive à un petit bijou de connections humaines, et de résilience par le contact avec autrui.
C'est donc étonnée mais très appreciative que je vais désormais aller me reposer après tant d'émotion... Et si je ne lui mets pas le maximum de point, pour des raisons toutes personnelles et subjectives, je pense néanmoins avec une grande énergie que ce livre mérite une infinité de bons points et de lecteurs.

Warnings : transphobia ( from the author ), Zionism ( from the author ), narcissism ( from the author ), spoilers ( from me ).

Really : this will be a giant spoiler, in the hope of avoiding you this enraging read. If you keep reading this, you WILL be spoiled. 

You've been warned.

I thought I wouldn't reach the ending of this book, for it made me extremely angry, and not in a good way.

It started relatively nicely. The writing style felt good enough, at times even greatly flowing ; and I'm a memoir lover, so I was willing to let slide a whole lot of flaws, no one being flawless in real life.

Then, and by that, I mean FAST, came the troubles.

Obviously, the author has a traumatic history involving babies. This isn't hidden, and if it explains why everything has to resolve around babies, it does not make it less obsessive and concerning when babies are brought up every few lines, and very regularly in a way that implies that every woman under the sun should be procreating as of right now.

Obliviously again, the author has a traumatic history involving a transgender person. This does not, ever, make it ok to use transphobic language, and even less throughout an entire book : " It was as real to him as Jim's belief that he was a man " is the perfect example of things that shouldn't be said about trans people. 

Also, we're having the great displeasure of seeing the " Holy land " mentioned. Terms like " passionate Zionists " and " the chosen people " are used in this book, and Israel is a place the author will very clearly defend to her grave. 
Well, if there is one thing to keep from this book, it is the line " Most Israelis would be spending eternity in Hell ", set somewhere around other very troubling Zionist sentences.
Please avoid telling me that this was written before october 2023. Someone that's been to Israel before 2023 also very clearly knows the genocide didn't start last year.

Let's go back to reading, shall we ? As we were discovering that her friend probably has an enthusiastic fascist of a husband, the author seems to think that it's all right cause her friend feels like this man was a literal god ordained gift in her life.
But it gets worse ! The author and her wife have to split up, addiction and cheating getting in the way of what we'll assume to be a very unhealthy relationship to start with. " She punished me by routinely getting inebriated at the worse possible times, which I hated but knew I deserved. (it did not cross my mind that this might not be all about me.) ". Author ? Do you hear yourself thinking, through this very foggy narcissism ? 

" Sometimes it was a relief to be on my own, not feeling (as) awful about myself, not fixated on how much she'd been drinking or what I could do to stop or. "
Took a breather after that, that's how angered I was at what I was reading. Literally went grocery shopping when I'd been avoiding it all day. 
I was MAD. It's so insanely selfish thinking, it literally terrifies me.


And then, when I came back from the supermarket, I found the author explaining that she went back to cheating because her break up ( caused by the cheating ) was too painful for her to hear ??? And she compared her unfaithfulness to an ADDICTION ?

I nearly went right back to the store to buy more groceries, including vodka, as a way to forget all of this was ever written.

After that, her side boyfriend finally appears to be an highly deranged individual, and indeed, maybe the author was under his toxic spell. But you know what ? That is no excuse for everything we just said. Not giving a shit to what battles your wife has to go through, starting a secret relationship on the side of your wedding, telling us all good Israel is, and bringing in the transphobia to generous length ; these are choices, that didn't seem to bring much enlightenment for the author, for she, years after, still write them as if none of this was an issue. 

Though, suddenly I can see how addiction is a comparable topic when it comes to that hidden relationship of her's ; true toxicity is indeed addictive, it very much is a poison, the same way nicotine or coke can be.

But what does it have to do with always more transphobic terms, like " her hideous lover - her bearded girlfriend " ? Are we suddenly allowed to display hate about dysphoric people, because one of them turned out to be a sociopath ?

Nope, we are not.

Some will argue that we have to separate the artist from the person ; here, this is nearly impossible. The writing is fluid, I'll give that to the author. It also is very honest, but I'm not sure we should congratulate her on that. She's simply too self involved to see how bad what she's confessing to is. 
The issue lies, literally, with the person who wrote this book.

Call me a wokist as much as you want ; the author, a gay woman, is the one who should be more woke, not me who should be less. And I'm also a white, gay, cis-woman from a rich country ; don't come telling me how awful life was for this problematic author, because I was actually dealt worse cards than hers, and I'll always do my best to defend transgender people, to gently treat people with addiction, and to proudly assert that, one day, from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.

... I wanted to stop here with criticizing this unholy book, yet I find myself right back here, it's that awful.

Our self entitled author, realizing that her wife had serious issues with alcohol, told her she wanted to leave her, at the very moment her wife was finally ready to start the healing process ; and then, that same author complains that, well, after ten years of relationship ( during which, let's all remember, she cheated ), she should still be entitled to her ex wife's friendship... That same ex wife she just abandoned on the sidewalk of her life like a weight she refused to carry.

God, I hate that bitch. It's in everything that is written, from the " Al-Anon sounds like Arabic " ( ... and ? ) to the " I want to slap her " while talking about her wife ( that's violence ). It's the " Addicts lie. When I was addicted to lust, I lied all the time... " You were NOT addicted to lust, or cheating. You're an unfaithful bitch. I rest my case. 
It's, to end it all, the " Are you the Ariel who all the bad things happened to ? ". You know what happened to you, really, author ? That very, deeply horrible situation with your child. But that is all, there is no " all the bad things " to speak of. It is, indeed, one violent and truly terrible incident that happened to you ; but everything else isn't out of the ordinary, and is of your own wrongdoing. I feel so much empathy, though, for your ex wife : she, too, had to feel he loss of her child, and she probably felt it in numerous cases, including when you were busy feeling that " primal attachment " to the baby daddy, and being willfully negligent to your wife's needs, bringing her right back down to alcoholism.

You're a very selfish individual, and nothing in the book indicates that you're aware of that, so I truly hope that someone will end up telling this to you. It's time to grow the fuck up. Half a point goes to you, for the writing is in itself, at times pleasant : but everything else is a shame I wouldn't want to carry with my name.

Très intéressant et instructif, du " bon côté de l'histoire " à mes yeux, et factuel ; un livre que tout le monde devrait lire.
Cependant, j'ai enlevé un point pour des raisons d'écriture pure, ayant constaté quelques rares répétitions. 
En conclusion, rappelons que l'injustice devrait être combattue, encore, et toujours. Merci, Jean Ziegler !

Well well well.

I was, as everyone else, warned about this book. " Very graphic " ; " trauma porn " ; " your falling tears will dry you up " ; this book, whether hated or beloved, certainly left a mark on his reader's minds. 

I was no exception... Which I discovered towards the second half of the book. Until then, I'd been blissfully admiring of the writing style, or beautiful prose, as we can all agree it is. 
But I hadn't been moved to tears, I was not particularly shocked, and if it makes me sound like a monster, rest assured that explanations are coming.

Of course, towards the end, I did end up crying a little, and I can't ignore that I felt a whole lot of " big emotions " ; sadness, anger, frustration,  obliterating rage... And finally, boredom. The story does get repetitive, and beauty can only be admired fully for a while, before we get tired of it. 

I disagree with those who say this amount of trauma is impossible, but I'd argue that it is indeed improbable. I've been gifted, myself, the kind of life that June has ( thankfully, in wildly different ways ), and it does look like I've lived a hundred lives already ; yet, this amount of horror, and not ONE single good person to try and do better ?
Doubtful.

Though, the reaction of his peers is actually gullible : very few are those who'd bring a sick friend to the psych ward against his will ( Andy though, aren't you a medic ? ). 

I've read comments about people being unhappy about the ending : spoiler alert ( somewhat ), how did you expect this to end ? It was logical, and even if I was rooting against this outcome for most of the book, around the last dozen pages or so, well, I actually agreed that this was the ending we should be wishing for.

As someone says in the book, " it's not fair... But it's right ".

Some lives simply cost too much. And I believe that those who expects happy endings are those who are used to getting them IRL, therefore that's their reality, and they can't see it any other way. 

Too bad, life sucks for some people. 

Still, I'd recommend the book, if you have the mind to handle it, and if you're sure you won't fall back bad pathways because of it. I had to be careful at some points, cause Jude and the past me think a little bit too much alike. 
Painful story, beautiful story... I took out points because of its exagerated length, and repetitivity ; but I still felt the " emptyness " in me that follows a good book's ending.