Reading “Love Me Tender” was a very interesting experience. The writing felt a bit similar to “The Book of Chameleons” in that some of the chapters are extremely short and the narration is simple to understand.
I like that Constance decided to live her life as authentically as she possibly could, not bending over for someone else’s needs. She’s so very courageous for doing so but it sort of felt like something was lacking, and I feel maybe I am just saying that because society has made me believe that there is something else to be desired. Books and life don’t really need to be dramatic, sometimes it just felt as if Constance was just gliding through life rather than really enjoying it!! Everything just felt a bit dull.
A thing I found interesting is that she constantly compares herself to men and sort of does things that men stereotypically do. When it came to parenting and her relationship with Paul, she would compare herself to an absent father. Then her relationships with other women are sort of like how SOME men treat women. She’s completely emotionally absent but that’s technically fair because she seems to be that way with everything else. Then there’s the way she’ll talk about the women, she won’t bother remembering their names or the details of their life that they share with her. She treats them like a quick fuck and a place to stay because that’s really all they are to her. The way she treats these women is unfortunate. I won’t say that she doesn’t make an effort in all her relationships because she does to some extent for her son. She tries to perform so they would let her see her son, she throws out the books that supposedly reflected poorly on her character although near the end she ultimately decides that maybe the effort isn’t going to change anything and that it was okay to move on with her life.
Every mention of Laurent made me upset, the first few of his appearances when she tells him she’s into women and despite knowing that fact he still tries to initiate something with her just goes to show how inconsiderate and disrespectful he is 💀‼️Then going as far as to lying when he realises that she’s into women and making it so she can’t see her son is just horrible. This guy sucks‼️Poisoning a son against his mother💔. I guess it just goes to show how marginalised people will often be in the weaker position when it comes to formal and informal institutions. I was really hoping that Constance would be able to have a somewhat good relationship with her son, but maybe a lack of a relationship isn’t so bad when compared to active resentment.
