The Worst Book of 2021
I've got to admit, it was a tough choice between this and Frank Kafka's "The Trial", they were both pointless books, but I could forgive Kafka because he never wanted "The Trial" published and his cousin? nephew? put it together from snippets found here and there... I mean, Kafka thought it was trash, and so did I, so that brings us to:
"The Margot Affair" by Sanae Lemoine
This is the blurb: Paris - Margot Louve is a secret: the child of a longstanding affair between an influential French politician with presidential ambitions and a prominent stage actress. This hidden family exists in stolen moments in a small Parisian apartment on the Left Bank. It is a house of cards that Margot—fueled by a longing to be seen and heard—decides to tumble. The summer of her seventeenth birthday, she meets the man who will set her plan in motion: a well-regarded journalist whose trust seems surprisingly easy to gain. But as Margot is drawn into an adult world she struggles to comprehend, she learns how one impulsive decision can threaten a family’s love with ruin, shattering the lives of those around her in ways she could never have imagined.Exposing the seams between private lives and public faces, The Margot Affair is a novel of deceit, desire, and transgression—and the exhilarating knife-edge upon which the danger of telling the truth outweighs the cost of keeping secrets.
First of all I would like to clear the air, this was not my choice of book, it was a Book Club pick, my aunt's. And well, it was overall considered a bad book by everyone. My grandma had to force me to read it.
From the blurb you might think that it's an interesting choice. You might think that this will get political, that this book will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions as the affair is exposed and everyone's life is uphended. And you would be wrong.
This is not a book about an affair and how lives get destroyed, it's not a book about accountability or politics. This book is more a "coming of age" story and its simply pointless.
Let's talk first about the plot. Margot is the child of an actress and a politician (not even an important one, just someone inside the Art Ministry or something) and she has always known that her parents are having an affair and that he has another family. Until she sees the wife and gets jealous, so she decides to tell a reporter everything. This reporter has a wife and she also gets involved in the story. Soon, Margot is spending all her time with them, because her mother has never cared where she is or what she's doing. The piece gets published... and nothing happens. Her father doesn't acknowledge her, he doesn't get divorced, her mother doesn't love her more. What happens is... her father dies. And that's it. It eventually turns out that his dying wish was to acknowledge her and that her mom does love her in her own twisted dramatic way. And also, Margot starts having an affair with the reporter. And the wife knows.
I failed to see the point of this story. I hated Margot and every decision she made. The "plot twist" were the dad dies was also senseless. It is also supposed to happen in Paris, and it supposedly transports you to the city, but I never read anything that screamed parisian, except for the word "arrondisement" which I still have no idea what it means, but Margot visits a few of them (yes, I did look it up as I was reading, but it was so stupid that I've forgotten).
The format in which it was written also bothered me, there was no logic to her paragraphs and sentences. It's like the author was trying to be "edgy" by not following any rules, but it just gave me a headache and made it harder to skip paragraphs to the "good parts". Also, what is up with those sex scenes? CRINGE they were so disturbing, and badly written.
Overall, I am thankful for my fmily book club that has allowed to read new genres, however, I am not thankful for this book and I absolutely do not recommend you read it.