Name: "Sociological excuses and apologies"
Item: End of Eddy
Author: anaca

End of Eddy →

by Édouard Louis

"Sociological excuses and apologies"

anaca

Jun 2, 2025 6:34 AM

(read in French)
“Sociological excuses/apologies” is an alternative title which was not used for this book.

It is a terrible thing to read books when you're not in the mood for them. I'm guessing this is what happened with this one.

Little Eddy comes from the poorest parts of French society, and was bullied by all because he was too effeminate. So he tried to play the part of a tough guy, failed, and eventually ran away. As he puts it, “Before I had a chance to rebel against the world of my childhood, that world rebelled against me”. Running away was the only option, and the book tells the story of the many earlier options, tried and failed, with the words of a sociology student discovering Bourdieu, sprinkling interview extracts from his subjects. Sociology explains (excuses, and apologises for) why everyone around him was in agreement on the right to life not being extended to homosexual people.

There are some beautiful parallels — between his father's glee at the death of his own violent father, and Eddy's own smile he keeps up while getting beat up by bullies — embodying sociological truths. Most of the time, the tale relies on the accumulation of violent episodes, and these end up reading like many laments.

So, pain, shame, injustice, self-annihilation, a gaping wound, and then, an escape. What do you do then? The answer doesn't satisfy me, but it is not my answer: apparently, you keep socio-psychoanalysing your family in novels up until you run out of family members. And suddenly, I feel like a voyeur looking at an undressing man I've just recognized to be an exhibitionist.