The End Of Eddy is Edouard Louis’ semi-autobiographical account of his childhood and adolescence in a village in rural France, where the residents are incarcerated by a life lived below the poverty line.
Men are expected to act tough, to fight and drink, and to find work in the local factory, but Eddy finds himself unable to live up to the macho values that the community and, in particular, his father expect of him.
Increasingly humiliated by the possibility that he might gay, he tries desperately to act the “tough guy”, dating girls and hiding his shame, but he is forever hounded by the abuse of both his family and his peers.
Writing from distance, having since left the village behind, Louis has produced an, at times nuanced, but always critical study of the conservatism of small communities, and an exploration of how we reconcile our individual nature with what is expected of us.
