Breakup - by Catherine Texier (Paperback)

About the Book

The erotically charged chronicle of the tempestuous final months of an 18-year romantic and literary partnership, self-destructing in the aftermath of the ultimate betrayal.

Book Synopsis

I will never forgive you.
I will never make love with you again.
I do not love you anymore.

Breakup is the erotically charged chronicle of the tempestuous final months of an eighteen-year romantic and literary partnership, self-destructing in the aftermath of the ultimate betrayal. Fearlessly and courageously, Texier chronicles the end of that love as it is wrecked by infidelity and deceit in a literary tour de force reminiscent by turns of Marguerite Duras and Henry Miller.

Texier writes in harrowing detail about the powerful sexual relationship she shared with her husband even during their breakup, how sex between them became a substitute for real intimacy, and how the fabric of a marriage (a shared cup of café au lait on a yellow table every morning, the memories of giving birth to two glorious daughters, of coediting their own literary magazine) is brutally dissolved.

Breakup is unsentimental and unflinching, a journal of love's exquisite torture. Every emotion, including rage, disgust, self-pity, hatred, sympathy, and jealousy, is mined. Heartbreaking, too, is the effect of the breakup on Texier's two children who, sometimes caught in the crossfire of their parents' turmoil, are trapped as the relationship spirals out of control and their once-secure home becomes a battlefield.

Ultimately, Breakup is about the risks one great passion involves. It is a journey of the heart in all its wild beating; a courageous diary of a soul laid bare, and the redemptive power of love.

Review Quotes

"I found myself gasping, raging and plummeting right alongside her....Catherine Texier tells a horrifying story here, beautifully and rivetingly."
--Francisco Goldman, author of The Ordinary Seaman

"By turns, disturbing, exhilarating, mesmerizing and always utterly impossible to put down."
--Anne Lamott, author of Bird by Bird and Crooked Little Heart

"The surprise in Texier's recollection of the end is her generosity of spirit, her...attempts to understand and empathize with the man who is betraying her and to even imagine the position of the...other woman. "
--Elizabeth Wurtzel, author of Prozac Nation and Bitch

"Texier's book/diary of betrayal is an open, emotional account of our deepest fears as women, as lovers, and, ultimately, as humans."
--Lucy Grealy, author of Autobiography of a Face

About the Author

Catherine Texier was born and raised in France and now lives in New York City. She is the author of two novels, Love Me Tender and Panic Blood. She was the coeditor, with Joel Rose, of the literary magazine Between C & D. She is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Award and a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. Her work has been translated into ten languages.