Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Bonjour Tristesse
Book Review: Pretty Light Fair
Summary: 3 Stars
You know how when you read a short book and you think "why am I so lazy in writing my novel? I could do this." THis is that kind of book. MOre like a novella than a novel, this book involves a girl, her father and his serious girlfriend. The girl doesn't know why the father decides to get married when he had a good thing going as a playboy but he does and the woman is alternately controlling and sweet. MOstly she just tries to be the parent that the protagonist never had.
It ends badly.
While some will say that this is deceptively simple, but actually it's pretty simple. A girl hates her stepmother. But she feels bad about it. THen they seem to get along when she is a little more reflective. Then the potential stepmother does something else.
It's short. It's pretty light. She was 18 when she wrote it so that's impressive but it's not particularly insightful or deep.
Book Review: Subtly Enchanting
Summary: 5 Stars
Francoise Sagan is a brilliant French writer, who here has written an intriguing novel about a young lady's 'coming-of-age' while on holiday by the sea. What I appreciate about Sagan's works most of all is her style. She writes very subtly, almost tenderly at times, but what comes out of these impressions is incredible clarity into the inner human workings and spirit. She deals with huge and incredibly moving emotional matters and life-changing experiences with such grace. Perhaps only French writers writing in French can do this (but this English translation maintains some of the original affect). It's like the hidden waters of the subconscious are feeding Sagan's stories, and especially 'Bonjour Tristesse' with eternal messages about life, love, fear, uncertainty, and Destiny. The parvenu paramour in 'Bonjour Tristesse' finds love without becoming jaded by the experience. Yet, she leaves us with elegiac afterthoughts. This is just brilliant literature.Book Review: This book was great when I was 15
Summary: 4 Stars
I found this book in one of our family bookcases when I was 15 and read it. There was a picture of a 17-year-old girl on the cover. I felt myself enthralled by the character and I imagined what she was like and kissing her. I believe she was dating an older man. I got pissed off and wanted to punch him out, and then she and I became girlfriend and boyfriend. Can one have a more rewarding experience than that when reading fiction? I doubt it.Book Review: Un roman qui n'a pas vieilli
Summary: 4 Stars
Cécile, une jeune fille de 17 ans, va passer quelques jours de vacances sur la côte d'Azur avec son père, un homme frivole, et sa maîtresse Elsa. Une ancienne amie, Anne, une femme intelligente et raffinée va bouleverser la vie insouciante et tranquille de ce trio. Cécile, jalouse de cette incursion dans la vie de son père et dans sa propre vie, va demander à son petit ami Cyril de simuler une relation amoureuse entre lui et Elsa pour couper court à cette nouvelle vie imposée par cette femme et aux projets de mariage décidés par son père et Anne. La manigance de Cécile va pousser son père dans les bras de son ancienne maîtresse. Tous deux surpris par Anne, celle-ci s'enfuit et meurt das un accident de voiture. Cécile connaîtra alors un sentiment nouveau dans sa vie: la tristesse.
Publié en 1954 , alors que Françoise Sagan n'avait que 21 ans, le roman a fait scandale: l'écriture était trop libre pour l'époque.Roman à la fois innocent et pervers, il n'a pas vieilli et ce n'est pas tant la maturité de la jeune femme sur la vie qui nous interpelle toujours mais l'analyse fine et lucide de la complexité des sentiments d'une jeune femme qui découvre tout de la vie.
Book Review: the fickle girl.
Summary: 5 Stars
good-bye sorrow? yeah, right.
brutal in it's careless cruelity- sparse, precise, and written in a language belying sagan's young age, bonjour tristesse is a twisted little french treasure you can easily read in an afternoon.
a delight.