I still don't have enough strength in the wrist I broke to hold a hose in one of those commercial carwash places, so I had a long wait at the place where they washed the car for me. And that was just enough time — at last! to finish my reading of Aimez-vous Brahms? by Françoise Sagan. (I started it in August.) I like having the books I'm reading in French in my handbag because it means I have to do without a dictionary, but during lockdown there haven't been too many opportunities to take the handbag out of the house and read the book.

An added bonus was that I finished it in time for #NovNov (Novellas in November).

Françoise Sagan (1935–2004) was a French playwright, novelist, and screenwriter. Her reputation (according to Wikipedia) rests on stories with strong romantic themes involving wealthy and disillusioned bourgeois characters. She was a prolific writer, with 21 novels listed at WP, three short story collections, a swag of plays, a ballet and rather a lot of autobiographical works. Many of her novels were made into films, including the well-known Bonjour Tristesse – which was published when she was still a teenager in 1954. Aimez-vous Brahms? (1959) was also made into a film Goodbye Again, starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Perkins, and directed by Anatole Litvak in 1961.

Aimez-vous Brahms is an angst-ridden romance which is not really the kind of book I enjoy, but I can see its merits. Paule is (at 39!) is feeling old. She's a divorced interior designer, living a modest life in Paris and trying to choose between the two men in her life. Roger has been around for a while, and she likes him, but he's not committed to the relationship and has a penchant for women younger than Paule, including one called Maisy (which maybe sounds sexier when pronounced with a French accent).

Just when Paule's frustrations with Roger are getting her down, Simon comes into her life. He's only 24 and of course he's gorgeous. Not only that, while she is dubious because of the age difference between them, he is besotted with her and is determined to make her love him. For her, Simon represents risk: if she gives up the security of her relationship with Roger, Simon might tire of her as she ages and then she will be alone. She's also wary of the gossip such an age difference might generate. OTOH Simon is good fun, he's very attentive and they have a marvellous time together (and not just in bed). There are however, his messy habits to contend with and after many years of solo living, she is not best pleased by his carelessness in her apartment, not to mention the pong from his Gauloises.

(And here we are half a century later, onto yet another wave of feminism, and some young men still don't understand that shared housework is a game-changer in relationships!)

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2021/11/08/aimez-vous-brahms-by-francoise-sagan/ ( )

Aimez-vous Brahms... was Sagan's fourth novel. Paule, a divorced, thirty-nine-year-old Parisian interior decorator who sounds suspiciously like a refugee from a Colette novel, is struggling to cope with the onset of old age (we should remember that Sagan was only 23 when she wrote this!). Her boyfriend, Roger, is showing signs of losing interest in her the moment he's out of her sight and has rather more "business trips" away from Paris than is quite plausible. Paule is becoming frightened of being left alone. Then she meets a beautiful young lawyer, Simon, the son of one of her wealthy clients. He's 25 and bone-idle, but he's gorgeous and very needy for love, and Paule is faced with a terrible choice - should she trade Roger in for a new, faster model, or would it be safer to try to get him refurbished?

Brahms comes in only rather peripherally - Simon has invited Paule to a concert which would be their first outing together and asks if she loves Brahms; Paule realises that she has absolutely no idea. In fact, she's not even really sure whether she loves anything except herself and her own existence.

It's slick and elegant and a bit more sophisticated than just a rehash of the tragic young man/older woman romance that has been the staple of every Great French Novel since Stendhal, but it's also gratuitously patronising to anyone over the age of 25 and it's set irredeemably in an haute-bourgeoise world in which work is something that other people do and there's something very wrong with your life if you regularly get home before midnight. So amusing enough for 120 pages, but I wouldn't like to make a habit of it.

Elle ouvrit son pick-up, fouilla parmi ses disques et retrouva au dos d'une ouverture de Wagner qu'elle connaissait par cœur un concerto de Brahms qu'elle n'avait jamais écouté. Roger aimait 'Wagner. Il disait : « C'est beau, ça fait du bruit, c'est de la musique. » Elle posa le concerto, en trouva le début romantique et oublia de l'écouter jusqu'au bout. Elle s'en aperçut lorsque la musique cessa, et s'en voulut. ( )

After a thoroughly Russian June, I have really had to force myself to let my brain hang out a bit and get into the Frenchie Frenchiness I crave. After reading Françoise Sagan's novella Bonjour Tristesse earlier this year and really appreciating it, I was absolutely ready for another swift dose of precocious, aloof and sexy French characters, wrapped up in their (in the grand scheme of things) unimportant love affairs and struggling to release themselves from their ground hog lifestyle, however stylish it may be.

In Aimez-vous Brahms we are treated to the classic love triangle that Sagan favours; Paule, a 39 year old interior designer is a woman at the end of her tether. Emotionally neglected by her long-standing, yet apparently rather dashing lover Roger she is unexpectadly swept off her feet by the young, headstrong son of a wealthy client. Simon is strikingly beautiful and lovestruck, standing in sharp contrast to the philandering bully stringing her along.

This is may sound such a silly thing to say but this small book is so French. The shallow relationships between the three characters, the grandiose sentiments ending in disillusion and abandonment are so existential it almost made me laugh out loud. But that isn't to say Sagan is laughable.

Although I would never go as far as to say that her work is hugely deep and meaningful, there is a certain philosophy here that I find attractive. Although irritatingly wrapped up in themselves and their own problems I found Paule in particular to be pretty realistic. Beautifully flawed, weak and confused you could say she was the Everywoman, the French Everywoman that is, and her lapse back into mundanity left me feeling, well, rather reflective really...

http://relishreads.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/aimez-vous-brahms.html ( )

I've read two romance novels in my lifetime. The first, A Prescription for Love or STDs, was about a bunch of physically challenged people with weird eyes that sparkled, flaring nostrils and hair that was unruly. This, the second, was about a bunch of French lovers. And the French really know how to screw up and complicate love. Or maybe I just don't appreciate love's complexity. Or maybe I just don't give a shit. Anyway, the lady is old (39 years old! My goodness she's on death's bed). Her stupid and thoughtless lover that sleeps with young girls is 41 and the lady's new lover and cause of her confusion is 25. I'm not sure why I state the ages. Maybe because it's just mentioned in the book a million times.

I really must have enough of her, he thought; when I start worrying about a woman's vocabulary, the end is in sight.

What a riot!

So... the French, Paris, love... I'm going back to the crazy Japanese now. ( )

3.5/5 ( )