Book review: Jonathan Joly on surviving cruelties of life in an unreal world of his own creation

The style is simple and friendly with a definite lack of filters and a good dose of self-revelation

Jonathan Joly. Picture: Jeff Spicer/Getty Images

What a weirdo! These words, directed at Jonathan Joly since his earliest years, were designed both to diminish him and to set him apart from the ‘normal’ world.

In All My Friends are Invisible Joly retaliates by explaining how, even aged three, he was able to protect himself from derision by a defensive creation: an unreal world. This place is Domdie and its first and greatest inhabitant is Giselle. In Joly’s psyche, Jonathan and Giselle are one person in two physicalities, and in Domdie they are able to gambol and play, far from the criticisms and cruelties of others.