Léonard Michaels' 'Le Club' Reissued in New French Translation

Éditions Christian Bourgois has reissued Leonard Michaels' 'Le Club' in a new French translation, originally published in the US in 1978 and first appearing in France in 1983. The novel caused scandal upon its US release, with feminists outraged by the characters' dialogues. It depicts a group of men gathering to form a club and talk among themselves, inevitably about women. The narrator attends the club's foundation at a friend's invitation. The men, not all acquainted, share stories of their lives, misery, wives, physical desires, misunderstandings, failures, and moments of happiness. They are surprised by their own liberated speech and the emergence of the unconscious. The book is described as the male counterpart to Cukor's 1939 film 'The Women' with a touch of Cassavetes' 1970 'Husbands'. Despite potential misogyny, the men are portrayed as ridiculous yet analytical, observing life's deceptions with bitter laughter.