"Riveting, harrowing, and brilliant, Manon Garcia's Living With Men is indispensable reading for our times. A work of journalism, philosophy, and cultural criticism, it will help you to grapple not only with the mass rape case that gripped the world, but also the ordinariness of men's cruelty to women under patriarchy. An extraordinary book."Kate Manne, Cornell University"A breathtaking tapestry of personal reflections, case details, and philosophical insights, Garcia has written the book we needed to make sense of the Pelicot trial and what it means for living with men."Fiona Vera-Gray, Co-Director of the Child and Woman Abuse Studies Unit, London Metropolitan University"As she excavates the sobering details of the Pelicot trial, Manon Garcia shares the painful realization of what it all reveals about our (women's) ongoing place in the world and the possibilities for stopping sexual violence. It is confronting and disturbing. But through personal reflections woven throughout the book, she walks alongside us, offering company, solidarity, and challenge: we see what is going on."Nicola Gavey, University of Auckland"In Living With Men, Manon Garcia, one of the foremost feminist philosophers of her generation, delivers an unflinching and extremely insightful analysis of the trial of Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-defendants – a case that exposed the deep entrenchment of rape culture in French society. Blending courtroom observation with philosophical analysis and personal reflections, Garcia dismantles the notion that sexual violence is an aberration, showing instead how deeply it is woven into social norms and how inadequate the criminal law is in addressing it. Both a searing indictment of patriarchy and a profound work of feminist thought, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the structures that make such violence possible."Susan J. Brison, author of Aftermath: Violence and the Remaking of a Self"Impossible to ignore"Irish Examiner"[Manon Garcia] has a penetrating gaze and a remorseless dry wit, and her book, from the subtlest scene-setting to the starkest conclusion, is gripping, eloquent, angry, funny and profound. It's also surprisingly moving, not least because of Gisèle Pelicot's courage."Zoe Williams, The Guardian"Garcia presents an incisive dissection of the concept of 'consent,' which is at the root of rape's legal definition... The result is an unsettling exploration of rape culture's deep roots."Publishers Weekly"We are living in a world, as Manon Garcia describes in her new masterpiece about the Pelicot trials, Living with Men, constructed by 'a scaffolding of rape'."V (formerly Eve Ensler), The Guardian"seminal"Celia Walden, The Telegraph"'Living With Men' breaks down elements and themes of the trial — judgment, normal vs. pathological masculinity and what makes a good victim."Andi Zeisler, Salon"Manon Garcia's skepticism ('Can we live with men? And if so, at what cost?') reveals a growing unwillingness among women to accept an inferior or unsafe status as the price of being loved."Sophie Gilbert, The Atlantic"The most terrifying question of Garcia's book is a simple one: can we, how can we, live with men after the Pelicot trial?... The trial implicates and affects all of us."Los Angeles Review of Books"A worthy companion to Pelicot's memoir"Inside Story"In 2024, the feminist philosopher Manon Garcia took a semester off from teaching to attend the trial; her book, Living with Men: Reflections on the Pelicot Trial, attempts to mediate between Caroline's and Gisèle's accounts, tracing how legal procedures and finite resources determined not only what could be established in court but also what remained unexamined."Dissent
