Vanessa Springora memoir is brutally honest and raw. It is written in a very matter of fact tone, detailing the relationship she had with Gabriel Matzneff when he was in his 50's and she (at the start) just 13. A relationship that he portrayed for years as loving and tender but which was in fact controlling and abusive. the effects of which ripple through Vanessa's life. Even after she has severed all contact with him he continues to reach out to her and worse writes about her and publishes her letters and pictures all to critical acclaim. It is a chilling story really of acceptance of celebrity men being allowed to behave in ways that any one else would probably go to prison for and shines I stark light on the literally and highlights why the me too campaign is so important.
This book also got me thinking about the importance of consent and sex education. Yes it is the role of parents to teach their children this stuff but we as a society need to do that too. The sex education program needs to tackle subjects like consent but also female pleasure, self pleasure, boundaries, coercion etc so that young people can make healthy choices and are less likely to be open to the abuses of men like GM. Knowledge is power.

Consent is a memoir exploring the childhood and adolescence of its author, when she just 14-years old she was groomed by a literary writer, who is referred to as GM, well into his 40s, and the two had a sexual relationship full of controlling and toxic behaviour. At the time she didn’t realise how wrong it was but later on realises that she was brainwashed and abused. GM is highly manipulative: he alienates her from her family and peers, and makes it seem to her that they’re in a love story.
This is just over 200-pages, but it packs a punch exploring how society made GM’s actions forgivable because he’s a ‘genius’’ and an ‘artist’. Her own mother turns a blind eye. Decades later we see how the author’s trauma is once again triggered when she’s presented as a footnote in GM’s books. This is powerful, albeit upsetting read about how a woman reclaims her narrative against her abuser through a book.

Brave and brutally honest memoir exposing the abuse of power, specifically the dispossession, grooming and sexual abuse of the author, then aged 14-15 by an award-winning 50-year old author and diarist. Since its publication in France a year ago, the author, now in his eighties, has been charged with rape and dropped by his publishers but what is really shocking is that what happened to the author, back in mid 1980s was an open secret, it went on for a couple of years, she wasn’t the first or the last vulnerable young girl he groomed and abused and, he openly wrote (over several decades) about his ‘affairs’ with young girls as well as trips to Thailand where he abused boys aged 8-14. While not widely read by general public, his books were nevertheless praised by critics, he moved in exclusive social circles, had powerful friends and won awards for his writing. Meanwhile, there was no law – until very recently to determine the age of consent in France (now set at 15). Since reading Consent, I’ve learned that another woman, now in her 60s, also abused by the same author when she was in her teens, wrote her account in 2004 but French publishers didn’t think the time was right so her book was never published. The timing wasn’t right? It is this permissive attitude that really got to me and made me so angry. This veneration of the Author or the Artist as somehow above the law, above morality, justified in his actions and behaviours because he produces Art – or Money (e.g. Jeffrey Epstein, Dominique Strauss-Khan). Yes, we’re all equal in theory so let’s just sweep these feudal remnants in our society under the carpet and turn a blind eye.

I applaud Springora not only for reclaiming her voice, piecing herself back together and finding the courage to tell her story but also for setting it in context and for forcing debate and forcing those involved – not least Matzneff’s publishers, to take a long hard look in the mirror. Credit also to Natasha Lehrer for translating the book.

My thanks to 4th Estate and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Consent.

Written in spare yet unflinching prose Consent, as the title would suggest, is a memoir that examines its author's relationship' to a renowned French author, Gabriel Matzneff. At the time Springora was 14 and Matzneff was 50. Springora looks back to that time in her life, evoking the feelings and emotions her teenage self was experiencing, and observes the way in which most of the adults around her did not bat an eye at her relationships with Matzneff. Her father no longer lived with her and her mother seemed under the delusion that her daughter was mature enough to be in love, and loved by, a man 30 years her senior. Springora describes in shuddering detail Matzneff's behavior towards her and I would not recommend this memoir to those readers who cannot stomach explicit scene (there were many instances that nauseated me). It was horrifying to read of how Matzneff preyed on Springora, alienating her from her peers, controlling the way she dressed, who could she spend time with, separating her from her own mother. Matzneff would also talk extensively to her about his many 'sexual exploits', presenting himself as a cavalier who rescues young girls like her from the rough clutches of inexperienced boys. He also wrote and talked openly about his perverse inclinations without any serious backlash. French literary circles seemed to find his pedophilia almost amusing, a sign of his being a really Casanova. Springora questions why literary men such as Matzneff were able to get away with things other men couldn't. Was it because he produced 'art'? Springora also discusses the impact of the sexual revolution on French culture and of how many French intellectuals encouraged or agreed with Matzneff belief that having sexual intercourse with a minor should not be a crime.
Springora offers snapshots from her time with Matzneff, most of which made me feel queasy. While I did appreciate the sentiment behind her narrative (before it was Matzneff who wrote about her and their relationship in his books, now she is finally able to take control of her own story) but I did find some parts of her memoir to be a bit heavy on the self-dramatization. While I understand that she wanted to evoke her teenage mind, at times this was a bit heavy-handed. The imagery too was clichèd, such as that passage in which with "blood" running down her thighs she has finally become a "woman". And I do wish that Springora could have provided some more interactions or thoughts on her mother. Her behavior in the whole 'affair' is abominable and part of me just could not wrap my head around how she could believe that her daughter was 'mature' enough to be with a man old enough to be her father.
Consent is a short but brutal read. It shines a light on sexual abuse and exploration, and a country's worrying attitude towards a pedophile.

A beautifully written and often uncomfortable account of a young girl's infatuation with, and seduction and betrayal by, a man old enough to be her grandfather. It raises all kinds of questions about age of consent, parenting, and the lip-service sometimes paid to "niceties" such as the question of consent in relation to sexual activities when children far younger can be charged with serious crimes. Everyone should read this and think about the bigger picture. Probably the most thought provoking book I've read in a long time.

"It seems that an artist is of a separate caste, a being with superior virtues granted the ultimate authorization, in return for which he is required only to create an original and subversive piece of work."

Vanessa Springora (V.) was 14 years old when she entered a relationship with a man - a renowned French author - more than 3 times her age. And though a lot of people were aware of this, and was this not the first time his behaviour came to light (better yet: he wrote essays, novels and diaries about the fact), nobody stepped in. In this reckoning Springora recollects how the relationship came to be, how he influenced her and what it took for her to break out from under his spell.

This memoir of abuse has been a very impressive and uncomfortable read. It's very impressive to see how she recounts feeling like her life has been made into fiction, how it doesn't feel like hers anymore once someone appropriates the story.
I applaud her bravery, and am glad she found the courage to write this.

Reader prepare yourself, Vanessa Springora was straight up savage in this book, she did not come to play! In this short, powerful memoir she lays out the events that led to her embarking on an affair with a man 36 years her senior when she was just 14 years old. Furthermore, her parents knew of the "relationship" and did nothing to stop it. Vanessa's mother even made it seem that she should be grateful to have been chosen. Vanessa's rapist (because let's be clear that is exactly what he was) is a writer who was highly lauded and respected in literary circles in France at the time which seemingly bought him immunity from any consequences to his actions.

Throughout the book, Vanessa refers to her abuser as G.M mirroring the fact that he referred to her as V in the books he wrote detailing their sexual exploits as well as the other encounters he had with children. The relationship between G.M and Vanessa took place in the 1980s and, shockingly, at that time there was little to no attempt made to prosecute him. In France the age of consent (15) meant Vanessa, despite believing that she consented to the union, was not legally considered old enough to make that decision for herself. Rather than be prosecuted however, G.M. was later given an award for his contributions to literature. A number of his peers even co-signed a letter he circulated aiming to remove the age of consent all together. I read this whole book in complete and utter shock and disgust.. How could something like this have been allowed to go on?

The fact that the adults around Vanessa should have done more to protect her goes without saying and I hope that today, such a flagrant abuse of power would not be allowed to take place. This is by no means a given, however, and we all must remain vigilant and be careful of ignoring red flags. In the age of celebrity, we must remember that just because someone is talented or respected in their field does not make them above the law and just because a child may say they consented to sex with an adult does not mean they have the emotional intelligence to make such a decision.

Vanessa's straight to the point writing style was confronting but also demonstrated a sense of ownership and agency that I really admired. This is undoubtedly her story to tell, she finally has the floor and she will tell her story her way. She states the facts of the abuse from the grooming "love letters" to the sexual acts she and G.M. went on to engage in with each other. She also shares events in her childhood that made her especially vulnerable to the advances of the predatory G.M. setting the scene for the shocking events that would follow. Shout out has to go to the translator, Natasha Lehrer, who did a beautiful job here. The translation had personality, character and conveyed a sense of Vanessa as a person. It never felt clunky or over-stylised and in this instance the greatest compliment I can pay Lehrer is that I did not notice the presence of a translator in the text.

Mercifully, Vanessa is now an adult in a healthy relationship working in publishing but how easily things could have gone the other way? How many of G.M's victims, traumatised by his attentions, have never been able to go on and have normal relationships? He is an old man now, who has lived the large majority of his life with his abominable behaviour unchallenged and it all just seems so unfair. This is probably not be very PC of me to say but if G.M. felt free to boast of his paedophilia in his books, then I can happily say this - if there is a hell, I hope the hottest part of it is reserved for people like him.

Thank you NetGalley for this book!

How can a grown man be writing about young girls and be given so much license and be celebrated?! For the sake of art, science, literature, we do seem to give men an awful lot of license. Vanessa also names others in this book; some who may not be explicitly complicit, but those who supported the actions of these men. I'm shocked, but not the least bit surprised that Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre supported him (so glad Foucault did not!).

Vanessa Springora wrote a clear account of the neglect of those around her who let her be abused by a man much older simply because they couldn't manage raising a child or standing up for someone. It's of course a reminder to everyone about who Gabriel Matzneff really is with the hopes that one day he is held accountable for the damage he has done others. Of course, he still walks free, but a quick Wikipedia search reveals that the original French publication of this book did start people up against the tolerance of the literary milieu towards a pedophile and the publisher Éditions Gallimard withdrew their marketing services for some of his works, with other publishers to follow.

Consent is a devasting memoir which has made a massive impact in France. In this well-translated English edition, Springora recounts how she was groomed at thirteen by Gabriel Matzneff, a fifty-year-old author who openly wrote about his paedophilia in his novels and published diaries.

Springora's writing is concise and insightful. She shares how her parents left her vulnerable to Matzneff's perverse advances, how his abuse affected her mental health, and the infuriating permissiveness of the literati at the time.

The shame, self-doubt and isolation that Vanessa felt flows across the pages and is a cautionary tale of the effects of childhood sexual abuse. Consent is a hard book to read, but a vital warning to the literary world and other artistic fields about the dangers of enabling predators.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for sending me a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Content Warnings for childhood sexual abuse, parental neglect & violence, rape, paedophilia, emotional abuse, suicide attempt and dissociation.

In May 1968 there was a cultural revolution in France that sparked a cultural shift in attitudes and left a lasting mark on society. The changes brought about the women's liberation front and also the gay rights movement in France but alongside these progressive ideas was something more sinister: the normalisation of pedophilia by associating sexual freedom with child sexual assault. For years, so called intellectuals would lobby against 'patriarchial' notions of child protection, instead objecting that children were naturally sexual creatures, capable of empowered, happy relationships. By 1977 these ideas of liberte were so entrenched Le Monde newspaper published a petition signed by the era’s most prominent intellectuals—including Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Gilles Deleuze, Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, André Glucksmann and Louis Aragon—in defense of three men on trial for engaging in sexual acts with minors. To this very day there is no established age of consent written into French law.
This book gives us a first hand look at the long term effects such attitudes have on these victims, unable to fight back because until very recently with the rise of the metoo movement no one in positions of power felt the need to challenge these views. Consent is a book about a survivor taking her power back from her abuser. It is often difficult to read, knowing that the story and the people involved are all real and were never censored from terrible behaviour. G., who the author rightly chooses not to even give so much as his real name, even now wants to punish the author with his own new book written in response to this one. With any luck, such criminals will stop being able to profit from even historical crimes as we move forward with giving victims back their voices and with hope, their lives.

It feels odd to be my age - still a young woman - but to remember a time when relationships between older men and very young women were noot suspiscious, were not questioned. I am too young to have ever known a time where a 50 year old man and a 14 year old would never have been viewed with repulsion; but I am old enough to remember girls in high school, 15, dating men in their late twenties to early thirties - we were all a bit jealous, it seemed cool and forbidden wthout being dangerous - something your mum would disapprove, but would not call the police for. Or the whispers when yet another famous man was revealed to have had sex with a teenager: "she looked older than her age", "she went after him". In some circles, I know many still think this way. French law does not help - rape is bad but rape requires "violence, coercion, threat or surprise". The law - although there are attempts to amend it - does not quite know what to do with the many months of grooming involved in many cases. Grooming a child for months and having sexual relationships with them is a sexual infraction at most; and many of the cases that go to court will attempt to demonstrate the child involved was in fact consenting, had agency, and was not even really a child - quite mature actually. Where in most other countries, no one would question that a 12 year old child and an adult is clearly abuse and the child was groomed and rape, in France this would be debated and some would seriously try to argue that the child looked older/acted older/was very interested in the adult/enjoyed their perfectly healthy relationship.

Vanessa Springora's memoir illustrates this perfectly - the fact it takes place in the mid-1980s and in a particular circle hardly changes anything. The adults around V are unconcerned, impressed, even happy for her when she reveals, aged 14, her affair with a respected writer over 50 years old. Big names have signed many petitions to make these relationships legal and acceptable - big names we normally associate with progressive ideas, feminist ideals, etc. When she starts to feel trapped and turns to adults for support and advice, they tell her she should be grateful that the writer, G.M, was even interested in her in the first place.

This is a book that will make you incredibly angry, nauseous, and mad that this is even up for debate. But it is also a well-written memoir about something so important - and the translation was fluid, faithful and pleasant to read.

This was completely shocking which, in an age of me too, is itself astounding. The story here is absolutely incredible, but it is also told with such grace, thoughtfulness and remarkable restraint.

Consent by Vanessa Springora is the story of her grooming in the 1980's ,at the age of 14 ,and abuse at the hands of famous French author Gabriel Matzneff,who shockingly was open enough about his perverted predilections to write books about them. Arguably more shocking these books were lauded as works of genius by people who should have known better who backed his campaigns to make this abuse, or "relationships" as he saw them, legal.

Vanessa was a child damaged firstly by her dysfunctional parent's abusive relationship then their split. Confused and let down by her male parent who barely warrants the title "father" and a mother who turned a blind eye to a 50 year-old man known for ,and who had even written about ,his attraction to children in books..While others her age were going to school and enjoying their teenage years ,Vanessa's childhood was stolen by a predatory abuser who incredibly openly paraded her amongst his peers as his "girlfriend". As with too many other cases unearthed in recent years Matzneff's behaviour wasn't questioned because of his fame and the important people he knew. Even years after Vanessa breaking out of his control Matzneff tormented and attempted to prey on her and her book tells how first he wrecked her life then she found the strength to rebuild it then ultimately fight back.

What hit me most was that like others before him who moved in "the right circles", Savile, Weinstein,Jackson and too many others Matzneff's behaviour was known and condoned by his peers for years as he wrecked life after life because of "who he was". Matzneff has never tried to hide what he is,or even been capable of seeing that it's criminally wrong..
The book isn't sensationalist and all the more effective for that,not a long read but not one you'll forget either.

Consent has been a sensation in France, where Matzneff is now being held to account as a direct result of the book,former supporters are deserting him,shame on them for their compliance in the first place, and the law has finally decided to take an interest.

A very honest book by a very brave woman,one that it appears will see a sick and twisted man finally held to account. Translator Natasha Lehrer deserves a mention as well for an excellent job.

This is a chilling and brilliantly written true life account of a 14 year old and a much older man who many held in high esteem. If you’ve read My Dark Vanessa or Lolita (or even if you haven’t), this is a darkly fascinating and scarily something that makes you look at certain events and relationships in your life in a whole new light.

Abuse of Power: Betrayal of every responsibility owed by adults to children

When Vanessa Springora, a French schoolgirl, was 14, in the mid 80s, she was groomed and seduced by Gabriel Matzneff, an award winning literary writer, 36 years her senior. Matzneff, a serial abuser of prepubescent boys and underaged teenage girls, wrote at length in his published journals, novels and philosophical essays about his sexual proclivities. Shockingly, rather than being prosecuted at that time he was somewhat lionised. At that time there was a movement, spearheaded by intellectuals to lower the age of consent – 15 in France. Some of the extremely libertarian, post 1968, revolutionary thinkers, Sartre, de Beauvoir, (so shocking!) Foucoult, Barthes, Derrida, Aragon and many others were act supporting the view a minor that could actively give ‘consent’ to sex with an adult. This was very much a movement of intellectuals, displaying an astonishing narcissism, effectively a belief that in the life of an artist, ‘anything goes’, as grist and fuel for artistic endeavour A classist, sexist, attitude of privilege. And in the case of Matzneff, race privilege also – his predations on young prepubescent boys happened on other continents: wealthy individuals travelling to engage in sex tourism.

Springora, now a woman in her late 40s, now a publisher,, has written this clear, shocking account of the damage caused by her abuse. Springora’s book does not linger luridly on the physical details of her violation, but explores the whole minefield of ‘consent’, the extreme psychological violation and lifelong damage . The mere fact of physical maturity does not mean sexual consent is truly consensual. Matzneff did not use physical force with his young victims; flattered by his attention and regard they were nonetheless psychologically seduced into a relationship which inevitably was an absolute, damaging abuse of power, wreaked by adult over child. Sometimes, as here, the paedophile was out in full view, but protected from censure because of their membership of an intellectual elite. Artists not to mention politicians, captains of industry, and other powerful individuals very clearly being above the law which might be meted out to the lumpenproletariat

It was only last year, in the wake of “Me Too” and “Times Up” that Matzneff faced charges of statutory rape, and that a long history of the abuse of underaged girls and boys by powerful individuals within French intellectual society, is set to be exposed and condemned. Springora’s book has lifted the lid on the can of worms

That the abuse happened is of course bad, and shocking, enough, but it is also the endless publications, the justifications and detailing of the abuser’s side of his serial abusings, and the acceptance of the idea that there can be equality of ‘consent’ between adult and child that so completely took away Springora’s own story of herself.

The damage to her, and to those others who may not have the means to be able to recover themselves by telling their own stories, is very obvious

This is of course a deeply disturbing and uncomfortable read. It is not, in any way ‘enjoyable’. I am often in a confused mind reading ‘victim stories’, wondering about my own motives – there is a certain salacious prurience which gets stirred – rubbernecking at car crashes. But, in the end, it also seems important not to ignore the voices of the damaged, for whom telling their story is part of their healing

An understated but searing memoir by a woman seeking to reclaim the narrative of her own life from her abuser.

Vanessa Springora was just 14 years old when she was groomed by a much older famous French author (Gabriel Matzneff) who she met when attending a party with her mother. The two began an affair, and their relationship was something of an open secret in Paris at the time; with Matzneff being well-known for publicising his predilection for teenage girls, who often featured in his work as his "muses". After their relationship ends Springora is named in his work without her own consent, and Consent is her literary response to Matzneff's manipulation, shedding light on the power he wielded over her and how untouchable he seemed amongst the French literati.

Recommended.

Springora's memoir of sexual abuse from the age of 13 by a man of 50 can, on one hand, take its place in an emerging canon of necessary exposés of predatory men exploiting the vulnerability and malleability of children - what makes this additionally significant is the extent to which not just her mother but French intellectual culture colluded against Springora by continuing to laud this man because he was a prize-winning author: Gabriel Matzneff.

Not just did Matzneff abuse Springora for years but he controlled the narrative of her life by writing her into his books as a seducing nymphet - and continued to publish his diaries detailing their 'affair' long after she left him and while struggling to deal with her own trauma.

The most shocking moments, for me, come when her mother - aware of the 'affair' - invites Matzneff to dinner. And, with huge disappointment, when we read the list of French left-wing intellectuals who defended adults having sexual relationships with adolescents under a post-1968 rubric of casting off bourgeois morality: indicted are Barthes, Deleuze, de Beauvoir, Sartre amongst others (and it's worth noting that the list of opponents included Cixous and Foucault) - albeit that the first group apologised later.

It is, then, particularly fitting that Springora should use the medium of literature to process, correct and take back control over her own story. This is not - and should not be - easy reading, but it is a powerful memoir of defencelessness, of cultural failure and, ultimately, resistance.

A gut wrenching book heartbreaking story of the author at the innocent age of fourteen being groomed by a well know author she meets at a dinner The author is a brave woman who seems to still be dealing with the effects of this mans effect on her life.Now a success in the world of publishing the pain is still there.#netgalley#4thestate

Whilst this is an interesting book it does feel like you are intruding on the writers memories. It's very uncomfortable to read because the writer doesn't seem to have resolved in her head what has happened to her as a child.
Groomed by a famous writer as a fourteen years old she tells a now familiar story of abuse that is disguised as a relationship, where she is used as material for the writers novel and naked pictures if her are published without her consent.
It all feels a bit raw, she is telling her side of the story but also it feels like she is trying to bring his reputation down so that she can feel relief. I wish she was able to prosecute him and that he would go to prison for rape of a minor. It seems so unfair but at least she has been able to tell her side of the story.
An important but uncomfortable read