Perhaps the most divisively polarizing book of the year amongst my GR coterie, I didn't LOVE-love it as much as some, but I would say I definitely enjoyed it and found it quite intriguing, and fast-moving. I had no problems with the harsh language or the more scandalous elements; my main annoyances came from not really relating to much of what was going on or to the particular political/punk/druggie subculture (being an older bougie American, and all), and having a hard time keeping the multitudinous characters straight.

Oddly, since it is in no other way comparable, I kept thinking that this does something somewhat akin to what Cusk does in her Outline trilogy... Despentes also flits from character to character while her ostensible central protagonist is something of a cipher that is known more by how others see him than he is by his own actions (he actually more or less disappears for long segments of the book).

Although I'm curious where the author goes in the 700-some pages of the other two volumes, instead of reading the impending second tome and waiting a year till # 3 gets translated/published - I think I'll wait a year and tackle the entire thing at one go... (Next time through, I'm definitely keeping a character scorecard though).