Bonjour Tristesse

More lunch break reading

Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan

Category: This is the first time I’ve read this book.

My thoughts: I am a bit unsettled by this book. I didn’t dislike it, but I can’t say that I loved it. Bonjour Tristesse is narrated by Cecile, a seventeen-year-old girl who lives a libertine life with her widowed father, who has a rather long list of concubines. This story centers around a particular summer when Cecile is determined to purge her father’s latest paramour from their carefree lives, while plunging into a sexual relationship of her own.

While reading this book, I wondered how American readers in the 1950s received this novel. It was published in 1955, and on television and in movies from this period, married couples slept in separate beds (like in I Love Lucy). The main character and her father, however, are very plainly sexually active. Cecile’s father’s girlfriend, Anne, tells her that women who indulge in such behavior “usually end up in a hospital.” I wonder if such a reference to abortion shocked readers at the time. And does Anne know this from personal experience?

Françoise Sagan wrote this novel (perhaps it’s better called a “novella”) when she was eighteen. It works really well, being that age and writing about a character that age. I don’t have much in common with Cecile, but I do remember being seventeen. You’re not a child, and you’re not a woman. And you’re not sure if you should cling to childhood or throw yourself into adulthood. It’s such a time of discovery and uncertainty. This is Cecile’s life, and she discovers that she has certain powers and abilities.

I have to say that I was a little creeped out by Cecile’s relationship with her father. They seemed to be too close for comfort. Like I said before, I was a bit unsettled by Bonjour Tristesse. However, I respect that the novel reflects real life. Cecile’s machinations indirectly result in a tragedy, which seems to give her pause, but does not alter her core. I think that’s real—a lot of the time, people are unwilling or unable to change their behavior when they should.

Great passage (which I feel epitomizes Cecile): I cannot say I wanted to “be myself,” for I knew I was still soft clay. But I refused to be molded.

Next, I’m reading The Living Is Easy. And dear readers, I’ll probably have a lot to say.