'Bonjour Tristesse' is an amazing achievement for a writer so young - Francoise Sagan was only eighteen when she penned this beautiful novella.

In many ways this book reminds me of Camus's 'L'Etranger' - the beach, the sun beating relentlessly down, the events that turn out so tragically for the protaganist and the people around them. However, Sagan's book follows the course of love and jealousy, as a young girl finds her father pulled away from her and the life she loves by an intelligent woman intent on marrying him. She plots to tear the couple apart, but never really knows what she really wants - for her plan to succeed and to have her womanising father back, or for her plan to fail and for her to have the safe and bougeois life that this woman can offer them.

The ending is a little too tragic, perhaps, but otherwise the novel shows an incredible amount of insight into the motivations and feelings of the young narrator; yes, this is one of those myriad works of literature that can teach as well as engross. ( )

Nice and short, delicate, like an appetizer. I think the translator did a good job. It's also quite different from the mostly American novels I read, the author tends to put more focus on describing the moods and feelings of the character, and the twists and turns of a teenage girl's mind which is hard because I can't even describe what I'm feeling sometimes. ( )

A compelling and dreamy read, Bonjour Tristesse paints a convincing picture of the casual cruelty of precocious youth.
As a character, Cécile is spoilt and self-indulgent, and her petty machinations have terrible unforeseen consequences as she fails to understand the gravity of others' feelings. However, the graveness of this cruelty is tempered by circumstance: her convent childhood, followed by two years of Parisian debauchery with her impulsive, irresponsible father, has left her ill-equipped to deal delicately with the appearance of Anne, her father's fiancée. Sagan's prose leaves us with an impression of weakness and insecurity beneath her protagonist's world-weary posturing.
In a tragedy like Bonjour Tristesse, where the unintentional consequences of events carry circumstances beyond the control of their would-be manipulator, it would be easy for the author to describe Cécile in simple terms, as simply spoilt and petulant. However, Sagan makes her a far more complex and morally ambivalent character. Even at the end of the book, she remains unwilling to confront the enormity of what has happened. Instead, she takes refuge in the company of her father, and together they rationalise away the enormous damage that their behaviour has done to a more emotionally engaged and sensitive person. In some ways this is infuriating - there is no real come-uppance for Cécile, merely a vague sense of nagging tristesse which visits her at night. However, this shallowness of affect both provides a more complex and human sense of character, and contributes to the temporary, vague, hallucinatory atmosphere which pervades the novel.

Thrilling little read. I am surprised to learn that Sagan was only 18 when she wrote this novella. The narrator, Cecile, is a self-aware and divided character, with a petulant adolescent streak for wickedness that tends to be quickly followed by the comedown of remorse. I was entirely convinced by this book and I wish it had gone on for longer simply to remain in her dilemmas and THAT summer with her and her puppets. Not often I describe books this way, but I did find Bonjour Tristesse deliciously fun. ( )

An unsentimental and thought provoking tale, and certainly worth the short amount of time it takes to read it.

Read and comment on my full review at:
http://www.bartsbookshelf.co.uk/2008/... ( )