“Fascinating . . . Adèle has glanced at the covenant of modern womanhood–the idea that you can have it all or should at least die trying–and detonated it.” –The New York Times Book Review“[A] fierce, uncanny thunderbolt of a book.” –Entertainment WeeklyFrom the bestselling author of The Perfect Nanny–one of the 10 Best Books of the Year of The New York Times Book Review–as well as Sex and … New York Times Book Review–as well as Sex and Lies and In the Country of Others, her prizewinning novel about a sex-addicted woman in Paris
She wants only one thing: to be wanted.
Adèle appears to have the perfect life: She is a successful journalist in Paris who lives in a beautiful apartment with her surgeon husband and their young son. But underneath the surface, she is bored–and consumed by an insatiable need for sex.
Driven less by pleasure than compulsion, Adèle organizes her day around her extramarital affairs, arriving late to work and lying to her husband about where she’s been, until she becomes ensnared in a trap of her own making. Suspenseful, erotic, and electrically charged, Adèle is a captivating exploration of addiction, sexuality, and one woman’s quest to feel alive.
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Adèle exposes the contradictory urges of modern womanhood: to want to control and lose control; to mother and destroy; to be adored by many but needed by no one; to be irreproachable in conduct but free to live as she desires. It is a timely, startling read that I dare you to put down.
No man would have dared write what she did. It’s an extraordinary first novel.
The ending was weird but I thought overall it was very interesting.
Explicit, angry sex.
I enjoyed reading Adéle, but it is not an easy read.
There is nothing to love about the main character Adéle, a beautiful bourgeoise sex addict who is ready to sacrifice her familly and job, in order to indulge in debauchery.
Immorality. Dangerous sex with strangers, affairs with powerful married men, sad sex with work colleagues; Adéle pushes her luck to the limit until her luck runs out.
Maybe it’s because the writing is so descriptive, vivid and detached, the character so cold and crazed, that I felt curiosity towards her.
Adéle needs to seduce and discard, it gives her power, but this is nothing new. What is new is that the sex addict is a woman and thus we are more disturbed, and a bit outraged by her total lack of respect towards the people that love her, or at least, tolerate her. There is nothing feminine in the way she behaves and this is what impacted me the most.
Sex with no sensuality.
I read on because I wanted to know if there is a way out, a solution to her unhappiness, a cure to her out of control selfishness and lustful self-indulgence.
This book reminds me of the brilliant 2001 “The Sexual Life of Catherine M” by Catherine Millet. If you want to read about a woman wanting and giving in to desire and pleasure (and a love of group sex) and who writes about it in the most explicit and raw ways, this book is for you.
Adéle is a a thought-provoking read, but unlike “The Sexual Life of Catherine M” it leaves you with the sad feeling that none of the sex is enjoyable to Adéle nor does it bring pleasure to anyone, beyond carnal primal pleasure. And in the end….in the end it could only end badly, and I say ‘could,’ because I don’t really know how it ends.
Adele seems to have a great life. She is married to a surgeon; they have a healthy young son. She’s a successful journalist. She has everything she ever wanted. But she’s grown bored with her job and distant from her husband. She loves her son, but hates that he is keeping her tied to a life she no longer wants.
She seems to spiral out of control .. what she wants, what she needs is to have intimate relationships. She lies to her husband, she lies to her boss, she lies to her friends about where she goes .. and with whom. Her days are filled with thoughts of other men and what they will do and where they will go.
But eventually, that’s not enough either.
This is a dark, depressing look at one woman’s attempt to feel that she is worthy and the addictive nature of those attempts. Warning: Very explicit language and intimate moments. If you are a fan of erotica, you will most likely really like this book. I am not a fan, as most of the book was way too descriptive without a lot of substance. I didn’t particularly like Adele or her husband. She seems to be on a different planet while he plods along and plans their life according to what he wants.
Many thanks to the author / Penguin Group / Netgalley for the digital copy of ADELE. Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own.