''The Bad Life'' (french: La Mauvaise Vie) is a

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

French novel by

Frédéric Mitterrand Frédéric Mitterrand (born 21 August 1947) is a French politician who served as Minister of Culture and Communication of France from 2009 to 2012 under President Nicolas Sarkozy. Throughout his career, he has been an actor, screenwriter, tele ...

, the Minister of Culture and Communication of France. The novel is partly

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life. It is a form of biography. Definition The word "autobiography" was first used deprecatingly by William Taylor in 1797 in the English peri ...

but fictionalized to a certain extent. The novel has been praised by critics for its "literary boldness" and "provocative examination of homosexuality". In 2009, the novel caused controversy for its description of gay prostitution in

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

, and Frederic Mitterrand was then accused of being a paedophile.

References

2005 French novels French autobiographical novels {{2000s-bio-novel-stub