Constance Debré – Love Me Tender

Love Me Tender is a relentless and radical work that portrays the search for a new identity through loss and the liberating transformation of life. It is about the rejection of class, family background, and sexuality as well as a rebellion against norms, the status quo, and the social illusions that sustain it. 

The novel, by French writer Constance Debré, tells the story of the transformation of a nameless heroine who leaves her role as a wife, mother, and lawyer to become a freelance writer. She leaves her family, her career, her high income, and her lifestyle to devote herself to writing books and switching partners without commitment. During court proceedings for alternate custody of her son, she must face condemnation and pressure, including homophobic attacks from her ex-husband.

The narrative style, inspired by the French legal language, is cold and spare, whether the author is describing dramatic and emotionally charged events or intimate reflections on nonbinding forms of love and family. Despite the austere form, this is a fascinating and transformative read that makes you want to turn your life inside out and plunge into the unknown.

Love Me Tender forms, along with the novels Playboy and Name, a loose trilogy through which Paris-based Constance Debré established herself as a writer after leaving a career as a lawyer.