King Kong Theory [Paperback]

Out of print in the U.S. for far too long, writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentess autobiographical feminist manifesto is backin an improved English translationblistering with anger, and so precisely phrased that it feels an injustice to summarize it (Nadja Spiegelman,New York Review of Books).

I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the hysterics, the freaks, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh. And if Im starting here its because I want to be crystal clear: Im not here to make excuses, Im not here to bitch. I wouldnt swap places with anyone because being Virginie Despentes seems to me a more interesting gig than anything else out there.

Powerful, provocative, and personal,King Kong Theoryis a candid account of how the author ofBaise-MoiandVernon Subutexcame to be Virginie Despentes. Drawing from personal experience, Despentes shatters received ideas about rape and prostitution, and explodes common attitudes about sex and gender.

An autobiography, a call for revolt, a manifesto for a new punk feminism,King Kong Theoryis Despentess most beloved and reviled work, and is here made available again in a brilliant new translation by Frank Wynne.

Virginie Despentesis a writer and filmmaker. She worked in an independent record store in the early 90s, was a sex worker, and published her first novel,Baise Moi, when she was twenty-three. She adapted the novel for the screen in 2000, codirecting with the porn star Coralie Trinh Thi. Upon release, it became the first film to be banned in France in twenty-eight years. Despentes is the author of more than fifteen other works, includingApocalypse Baby,Bye Bye Blondie,Pretty Things, and the Vernon Subutextrilogy.

I can think of almost no book Ive enjoyed in recent years as much asKing Kong Theolã