In Hallencourt, where writer Édouard Louis grew up, the word “violence” is seldom used. Which isn’t to say it’s a peaceful, idyllic place. There may be the ostensible benefits of the countryside; the surrounding area may be lively and green. But the town ― which, in France’s recent presidential race, favored the Trump-esque Marine Le Pen ― is marked by its gendered social values.

Louis ― born Eddy Bellegueule ― writes in his novel The End of Eddy that he was chastised and bullied for his “affected” voice from a young age. His father and eldest brother were both drinkers and fighters. Like most men in Hallencourt, his father dropped out of high school to work at a factory, but was unable to continue his work due to an injured back. The author flatly recounts memories of his father, who would murder litters of kittens and brawl for sport. Louis, meanwhile, took pleasure in trying on women’s clothes, and devised excuses for skipping out on soccer practice.

Louis’s parents, and others in town, eventually came to accept his queerness just as they conceded the personhood of the only black person they knew in town. But acceptance came with a stipulation, a rationalization: we like you because you’re not like the others. Being not like the others meant being tough. In Hallencourt, toughness was the highest virtue. It meant doing backbreaking work. It meant, in Louis’ case, not flinching when a classmate hocked a phlegmy wad of spit onto his face.

Louis is gifted at limning visceral descriptions of squalor. His want to not allow doctors to cede control of his body, and his resulting choice to spray a tetanus-blackened foot with perfume; his dust-covered and smoke-filled home, made worse by having asthma; his dad’s proclivity for fixing up old TV’s, and demanding that the family watch together in silence over dinner. The psychological insights he culls from these experiences are poignant. His mother’s tendency to declare that she’s “not a lady,” the habit both kids and adults in town had of laughing at the pain of others, as though laughter conveyed strength of character.

Of being bullied at school, Louis writes, “They laughed when my face began to turn purple from lack of oxygen (a natural response from working-class people, the simplicity of those who possess little and enjoy laughing, who know how to have a good time).” On the town’s rampant racism, Louis’ takeaways run the risk of being facile. “There is a will that exists, a desperate, constantly renewed effort to place some people on a level below you,” he explains plainly.

Still, the writer’s emotional tenor and clear-sightedness make this a must-read for anyone looking to learn more about class in the West, and how it weighs on the state of politics.

The bottom line

A touching story that’s artfully told, The End of Eddy will both make you want to turn away ― the descriptions of violence are that rich, and sensate ― and continue on with its frank and generous author.

Who wrote it

Édouard Louis, aka Eddy Bellegueule, is the author of two novels. Michael Lucey, the book’s translator, is a professor of French literature at the University of California, Berkeley.

Who will read it

Anyone interested in the burgeoning subgenre of autofiction, or in stories about class, masculinity, and growing up queer.

What other reviewers think

Slate: “Coming to terms with his childhood has resulted in this stark and honest image of French working class society, rendered in an authentic voice.”

Washington Post: “What is most impressive about The End of Eddy is that its author turned himself into a man capable of creating such a vivid and honest self-portrait.”

Opening lines

“From my childhood I have no happy memories. I don’t mean to say that I never, in all those years, felt any happiness or joy. But suffering is all-consuming: it somehow gets rid of anything that doesn’t fit into its system.”

Notable passage

“The truth was that the display of all these bits of flesh was driving me crazy. I was using words like fags, fairies, queers to keep my distance from them. I used these words against the others in the hope that they would stop invading every inch of my body.”

The End of Eddy
Édouard Louis
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $23.00
May 2

The Bottom Line is a weekly review combining plot description and analysis with fun tidbits about the book.

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Screenwriter Dee Rees is to heart-rending films about black lesbians as producer Jason Blum is to eerily relevant social horror movies ― and the two are joining forces for what should be a one-of-a-kind movie that speaks to the terror of homophobia, sexism and racism, at the very least. 

Rees is the director of the 2011 Sundance film “Pariah,” about a young black lesbian coming to terms with her sexuality and familial rejection, and the Golden Globe-nominated biopic “Bessie” about 1920s queer blues singer Bessie Smith. Blum produced the second highest-grossing R-rated horror film in North American history with 2017’s “Get Out,” a social thriller that intertwines components of the genre with the experience of being black in America.  

Both have mastered the art of using cinema as insight into painful everyday American realities, and, according to a New York Times Magazine article published Thursday, will soon be combining their storytelling talents. 

Blum, who is a fan of Rees’ critically acclaimed Sundance movie “Mudbound,” said Rees recently pitched a horror film centered on a black lesbian couple who just moved to the countryside together, and he was all for it. 

They met at a recent event in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air, where both gave speeches to a room of Sundance Institute benefactors. After Rees and Blum both spoke to the other’s brilliance, they connected after Blum’s speech for a meeting of minds. 

Rees’ pitch to Blum went as follows: “You’ve got me and my wife, two black lesbians, and when we first moved in, we fought every day over all these little things: ‘Why is this over there? Did you move that?’ ” she said. 

“Maybe it was a ghost,” Rees continued. “Or maybe it was some other force — like us not wanting to be there or fitting in. Anyway, that’s my horror-movie pitch,” Rees said.

Blum was sold. Just a few weeks later, the two met for lunch and began talking business. 

“I can’t tell you how rare it is that people mean what they say in this business,” Rees told writer Ryan Bradley of Blum. “He’s just letting me make the best possible version of what I want to make.”

We don’t know how long this will take, but we can imagine Jordan Peele is somewhere satisfying a screenwriting itch. 

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A viral video is helping to pose a parenting question to social media users.

On May 13, the Facebook page VibeswithBae posted a video of a young boy doing a makeup tutorial. “You walk in to your son doing this, wyd?” the caption asks.

The video has been viewed over 15 million times. 

Commenters came up with some awesome responses to the question in the caption. Their reactions as his hypothetical parents ranged from asking him to do their makeup to helping him launch a beauty empire.

Many also offered their own beauty tips to the budding makeup artist.

The boy in the video is named Jack and lives in the U.K. His Instagram account, @makeuupbyjack has nearly 45,000 followers. Jack regularly posts photos and videos of his favorite makeup looks. 

While there were tons of empowering responses to the viral video, there were also many negative reactions from Facebook users who said they would punish him if he were their son and do whatever they could to put a stop to his passion for makeup.

In response to the vitriol, one commenter brought up another recent viral video, in which a 3-year-old girl demonstrated how to change the oil in a car. 

“Not 1 comment saying ‘she shouldnt be doing that! Thats a mans thing to do! Slap that girl up!’” the Facebook user wrote. “Everyone commenting saying how clever and awesome she was! So why is it OK for girls to do boys things but a boy getting slated for doing girl things?! Let people, kids, boys, girls whoever do whatever the fuck they like!”

Young boys with more “feminine” interests have faced backlash for not conforming to traditional gender norms.  

Last month, Ellen DeGeneres invited a 12-year-old boy who was bullied for wearing makeup on her show. A viral Twitter hashtag also recently illustrated the way expectations of masculinity limit young boys and promote damaging stereotypes that can have a profound effect for many years. 

In this day and age, maybe it’s time to just let kids be kids. 

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Vladimir Putin, an authoritarian president who is more concerned with consolidating his own power over Russia than addressing the country’s shocking track record of human rights violations, can play the piano.

That’s right, the leader of the world’s largest nation, who has threatened the very bedrock of free press and potentially encouraged the delegitimization of Western democracy, has some semblance of a musical talent. 

Proof of such talent hit the internet on Monday morning in the form of a video of Putin playing Vasily Solovyov-Sedoi’s “Evening Song” and Tikhon Khrennikov’s “Moscow Windows” in Beijing. While you might have imagined such a recital unremarkable, others would disagree. 

“The recital showed perhaps a softer side of Mr. Putin, an authoritarian leader who has been in power since 1999 and has often appeared eager to be seen as manly,” Ivan Nechepurenko wrote in a piece that appeared in The New York Times. The story was picked up by other outlets (including this one) and reported in a similar fashion by other publications, who made it a point to note that the piano playing represented a “softer” skill.

When compared to his knack for invading other countries or supporting internationally condemned dictators, perhaps piano playing is a “softer” skill. But the arbitrariness of that comparison reveals the absurdity of the framing: Putin’s ability to play the piano doesn’t make him any softer, or even reveal a supposed “softer side.”

As many people have pointed out on social media, several other men capable of heinous things have demonstrated a talent for the arts. So what? 

Putin’s seemingly spontaneous public outings, always chronicled by a photographer on hand, have been covered before. He hunts, he fishes, he rides horses shirtless. His piano playing is but another public gesture, meant to humanize, even aggrandize, a president whose regime is riddled with corruption. But does it make a difference to anyone that Putin, capable of the atrocities mentioned here, has a “softer side”? Is artistic talent that redemptive of a quality?

Artists are certainly not innately good or soft. (“Hard,” “evil” people can make art, too; to use a particularly popular example from history, Hitler was an acclaimed painter.) Neither is art itself. It can be uncomfortable, dark, provocative, nauseating. Just ask Hermann Nitsch. “The gooey notion that art should somehow be good for you ― Vitamin C for the soul ― is very American,” critic Christopher Knight wrote back in 1992. 

When former American President George W. Bush announced his painting hobby, the internet was quick to praise such a nice, quaint retirement pastime. When he came out with his own art book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, the praise continued, until a Hyperallergic article proposed that maybe we were focusing too much on “the transformative power of art.” He was, after all, the same president who’s believed to have “misled a nation into the Iraq War.” 

Perhaps what’s particularly annoying about the framing of an article that suggests Putin, a totalitarian head of state, is somehow more sensitive after putting on a piano performance, is that it proposes that his talent is also the opposite of “manly” ― as opposed to his more “virile” hobbies: hunting and fishing and shirtless horseback riding. The overtly masculine descriptors are perplexingly outdated and sexist, because, obviously, virile men can play the piano and feminine women can hunt.

At the end of the day, Putin’s piano playing means much less than he or his administration would like you to believe. Whether he’s performed before ― or done so badly ― does not matter. 

Deborah Rothschild, the curator of a show of Hitler’s paintings, once said that, “The union of malevolence and beauty can occur; we must remain vigilant against its destructive power.” But Peter Schjeldahl, an art crtic at The New Yorker, probably said it better:

We must remain vigilant against malevolence, and we should regard beauty as the fundamentally amoral phenomenon that it is.

It does not matter.

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Sadly, another “Bachelor” couple has ended their engagement. 

Ben Higgins, who starred on Season 20 of the ABC franchise, has officially called it quits with his fiancée, Lauren Bushnell, according to People. The two shared a statement on their split: 

It is with heavy hearts that we announce our decision to go our separate ways. We feel fortunate for the time we had together, and will remain friends with much love and respect for one another. We wish nothing but the best for each other, and ask for your support and understanding at this time.

Cue lots of tears.

Higgins and Bushnell got engaged ahead of the season premiere of “The Bachelor” Season 20 in January 2016. Although they had to keep their relationship a secret while the season played out on the air, it was pretty clear that Higgins had a special bond with Bushnell right from the beginning. She beat out runner-up ― and future Bachelorette ― JoJo Fletcher for his heart and a Neil Lane diamond ring. 

Rumors of a split have been floating around for months, but Higgins shot down any speculation with an Instagram post in February. 

In October 2016, the couple revealed they were in couples therapy, with Higgins telling People at the time, “We’re not the perfect couple. Far from it! But we are trying really hard, and we love each other a lot … ’Bachelor’ or not, our life is not easy to navigate. We have our struggles. But we won’t give up. And for every argument, we’re stronger for it.”

The pair, who debuted their own reality series, “Ben & Lauren: Happily Ever After?,” on Freeform in October, moved in together last April in Denver, Colorado. (Clearly, the show won’t be back for a Season 2, but at least we still have the Ferguson twins!) 

Bushnell, who’s now a lifestyle blogger, hasn’t posted a photo of Higgins in a month. The former Bachelor, however, just shared a picture of his former love last week, writing, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. -Martin Luther King Jr.” @laurenbushnell continues to spread love while some feel it is their responsibility to spread hate, she is a light in this world. Proud of my gal, @laurenbushnell got me .”

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The 1969 experimental film “Funeral Parade of Roses” defies classification: The “Oedipus Rex” update is a master class in queer art-house cinema, integrating documentary techniques in which the movie’s actors break the fourth wall to discuss their roles. Revolving around a love triangle in Tokyo’s underground transgender scene, Toshio Matsumoto’s avant-garde classic has been restored for a June re-release.

HuffPost has the exclusive trailer, which outlines the film’s stylistic flair. “Funeral Parade of Roses” famously inspired Stanley Kubrick’s vision for “A Clockwork Orange,” which also melds violence, sex and outré imagery.

“Roses” opens June 9 in New York and June 16 in Los Angeles. It expands to additional cities thereafter. 

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While networks are still deciding which television shows will live to see another season, executives are gathering in New York this week for upfronts.

Big presentations are made, celebrities are trotted out and network execs try to dazzle advertisers with their programing slate for the upcoming year in hopes of convincing them to spend their ad dollars on the commercial breaks between what is ― fingers crossed ― the next hit show. 

Here’s your first look at some of the trailers for the new shows that will air in the 2017-2018 television season.

(This post will be updated as more networks confirm their programing schedules and release trailers.) 

“The Brave”  ― NBC

Defense Intelligence and Special Ops squads team up to save innocent lives around the world in the new drama The Brave, coming Mondays this fall to NBC.

”Law and Order: True Crime” ― NBC

From Executive Producer Dick Wolf comes a new chapter in the franchise — “Law & Order True Crime: The Menendez Murders,” starring Edie Falco as defense attorney Leslie Abramson. Coming Thursdays this fall to NBC.

“Will & Grace” ― NBC

An encore 11 years in the making. It’ll take Will, Jack and Karen to convince Grace it’s a good idea. Will & Grace is back Thursdays this fall on NBC. 

“The Gifted” ― FOX

“The Gifted” tells the emotional story of a suburban couple whose ordinary lives are rocked by the sudden discovery that their children possess mutant powers. Forced to go on the run from a hostile government, the family seeks help from an underground network of mutants and must fight to survive.

“The Crossing” ― ABC

Refugees from a war-torn country seek asylum in a small American fishing town, only the country these people are from is America… and the war they are fleeing hasn’t happened yet. As the government tries to uncover the truth behind this mysterious migration only one thing is certain: The lives of the people here — both the townspeople and these newcomers — will never be the same. Writers Dan Dworkin & Jay Beattie executive produce with Jason Reed.

“Marvel’s The Inhumans” ― ABC

After the Royal Family of Inhumans is splintered by a military coup, they barely escape to Hawaii where their surprising interactions with the lush world and humanity around them may prove to not only save them, but Earth itself.

”The Good Doctor” ― ABC

Shaun Murphy (Freddie Highmore, “Bates Motel”), a young surgeon with autism and savant syndrome, relocates from a quiet country life to join a prestigious hospital’s surgical unit. Alone in the world and unable to personally connect with those around him, Shaun uses his extraordinary medical gifts to save lives and challenge the skepticism of his colleagues. The series is from David Shore (“House”) and “Lost” and “Hawaii Five-O” star Daniel Dae Kim.

”The Mayor” ― ABC

Young rapper Courtney Rose (Brandon Micheal Hall) needs his big break. For years, he’s toiled away in a small inner-city apartment, making music in his junk-filled bedroom closet. Tired of waiting for opportunity, Courtney cooks up the publicity stunt of the century: Running for mayor of his hometown in California to generate buzz for his music career. Unfortunately for Courtney, his master plan goes wildly awry, ending in the most terrifying of outcomes: An election victory. With the help of his mother (Yvette Nicole Brown, “Community”) and friends, including Valentina (“Glee’s” Lea Michele), Courtney will have to overcome his hubris if he wants to transform the struggling city he loves.  

”Ten Days in the Valley” ― ABC 

“Ten Days in the Valley” stars Kyra Sedgwick as Jane Sadler, an overworked television producer and single mother in the middle of a separation whose life is turned upside down when her young daughter goes missing in the middle of the night. Just like her controversial police TV show, everything is a mystery, everyone has a secret, and no one can be trusted.

”For The People” ― ABC 

Set in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, aka “The Mother Court,” this new Shondaland drama follows brand-new lawyers working for both the defense and the prosecution handling the most high-profile and high-stakes federal cases in the country — all as their lives intersect in and out of the courtroom. The series is created by Shondaland’s Paul William Davies and is executive produced by Shonda Rhimes and Betsy Beers. 

”Deception” ― ABC

When his career is ruined by scandal, superstar magician Cameron Black has only one place to turn to practice his art of deception, influence and illusion — the FBI. Using every trick in the book and inventing new ones, he will help the government catch the world’s most elusive criminals while staging the biggest illusions of his career. The series is from writer/executive producer Chris Fedak (“Chuck”) and executive producers Greg Berlanti, Martin Gero and Sarah Schechter. Illusionist David Kwong (“Now You See Me”) will co-produce.

”Splitting Up Together” ― ABC

Based on the Danish series, “Splitting Up Together” is the story of a couple whose marriage is reignited by their divorce. Emily Kapnek (“Suburgatory”) writes and serves as executive producer of this new comedy, along with Ellen DeGeneres.

“The Gospel of Kevin” ― ABC

Kevin Finn (Jason Ritter, “Parenthood”), a cluelessly self-serving person, is on a dangerous path to despair. In a downward spiral, Kevin returns home to stay with his widowed twin sister (JoAnna Garcia Swisher, “Once Upon a Time”) and niece. On his first night there, an unlikely celestial being named Yvette (Cristela Alonzo, “Cristela”) appears to him and presents him with a mission: to find and recruit the 35 righteous humans who can restore a sacred balance that will ultimately save the world. A light drama from executive producers Michele Fazekas & Tara Butters (“Marvel’s Agent Carter,” “Resurrection,” “Reaper”).

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The sister of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old woman who was found dead in her Texas jail cell in July 2015, is furious over the “gut-wrenching” ways she says a criminal justice reform bill created in Bland’s honor has been drastically weakened by law enforcement groups and Republicans. 

The latest version of the legislation, which unanimously passed the Texas Senate last week, has been stripped of provisions that would require a higher burden of proof for stopping and searching vehicles, as well as those that would ban arrests over offenses that are punishable by a fine. An earlier version of the bill also required officers who have racially profiled drivers to undergo training and included language to make personal bonds more easily attainable for nonviolent arrestees.

Instead the bill, which Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire (D) essentially described to The Associated Press as “a mental health and awareness piece of legislation,” has been slimmed down to focus on providing mental health and de-escalation training for jailers. It will also provide mental health care access to and increased supervision of inmates. 

“What the bill does in its current state renders Sandy invisible,” Sharon Cooper, Bland’s sister, told the AP. “It’s frustrating and gut-wrenching.”

Bland’s family was hopeful that the bill would bring comprehensive and sweeping changes to policing in Texas, but loved ones are now outraged over the ways the bill has been altered. They say it will now do little to prevent similar instances with the police like that which Bland experienced. 

“It’s a complete oversight of the root causes of why she was jailed in the first place,” Cooper told The Texas Tribune, calling the bill a “missed opportunity.”

Police said Bland, who is black, was found hanged in a Waller County jail cell three days after being arrested by trooper Brian Encinia, who is white, after she failed to signal a lane change. Bland’s family does not believe her death was the result of suicide. This, along with video of her arrest ― which shows Bland being forcibly removed from her car ― and the ongoing deaths of black men and women in police custody, has further amplified the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Since Bland’s death, family members and activists have relentlessly fought to help bring justice in her name. However, despite their best efforts, activists who have supported this bill, like organizer Fatima Mann, don’t even believe the revised legislation is worthy of having Bland’s name attached to it. “It should be a bill that actually takes away the issue that caused her death,” Mann told the AP. “Not this.”

Critics like Charley Wilkison, the executive director of the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas, believed the original bill was a “straight-out attack on all law enforcement over a tragic suicide in a county jail,” according to the AP, and felt that crafting it to focus on mental health was a more appropriate measure. 

In April, Bland’s mother, Geneva Reed-Veal, traveled to Texas to testify before state lawmakers and push for changes in policing that were outlined in the Sandra Bland Act at the time, the Houston Chronicle reported.  

“I need this bill to move forward so that it will prove to people who say that Texas is the most awful state to live in,” she told lawmakers. “And to me that’s true, because Texas is a place of pain for me.” 

The revised bill will now head to the House, where it has until May 29, when the legislature adjourns, to be signed into law. 

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Having a preemie in the hospital can be an emotional rollercoaster for parents. That’s why Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City decided to bring a little joy to the NICU.

In honor of Mother’s Day, the hospital teamed up with March of Dimes to give moms of preemies professional photos with their babies. 

For the photo shoots, the mothers engaged in skin-to-skin bonding with their babies ― a practice that has many benefits for both parties. The photographers were also moms, some of whom previously had preemies in the NICU.

“Finding ways to spend quality time is sometimes hard to do in the NICU, where babies who are premature or critically ill are often fragile and under constant care,” notes a press release for the initiative. “Skin-to-skin care, also called kangaroo care, or holding a diapered baby against a bare chest, is recommended by the March of Dimes and health experts worldwide.”

Keep scrolling to see some sweet Mother’s Day photos of strong NICU mamas and their little fighters. 

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If you’ve ever wondered what Disney princesses might be like IRL, you need to follow this Instagram account.

In her comics, 15-year-old illustrator Imane takes classic Disney movies and makes them a little more realistic and relatable. 

Aurora from “Sleeping Beauty,” for instance, takes naps that last way too long because she has no self-control. (Sounds like us on the weekend.)

And all the royal single ladies skip Valentine’s Day in favor of girls’ night at the bar:

Imane, who lives in the Netherlands, told HuffPost that she looks for funny plot devices in Disney movies and then tries to put her own spin on them. 

Her favorite comic so far? Her comic alter ego as Mulan, inappropriately bursting into song in the middle of a work meeting.

”That song ― ‘I’ll Make A Man Out Of You’ ― is always in my head and it’s something that would totally happen to me,” she said.

See Imane’s other Disney-inspired comics below and head to her Instagram for even more:

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