Bonjour Tristesse

The cover of this translation of Françoise Sagan's classic coming of age tale has a quote that calls it thoroughly immoral. The back of the book tells me that it scandalised 1950s France with the main character's rejection of conventional notions of love.

What was love like in 1950s France, then? What's immoral about finding pleasure in desire and enjoyment in sex?

Sagan was 18 when she wrote the book, and her eye for the transition from youth to adulthood is precise. There is nothing flowery or romantic about her writing, but the book is more beautiful for that. Her style made me think of Fitzgerald, but I liked Sagan more. She brought some Flannery O'Connor to the mix.

Although only a short book, it drew me in completely. I really show more enjoyed it. show less

Spoiled teen Cécile spends a summer on the Riviera with her "frivolous" father Raymond and his new fiancée, intelligent, orderly Anne. Fearing that Anne will drastically change her and her father's pleasure-seeking lifestyle after the planned fall wedding, Cécile hatches a plan to drive her father and his fiancée apart. Cécile revels in her ability to get weaker-minded people to do her bidding, but she doesn't foresee her scheme's tragic consequences.

First published in 1955, Bonjour Tristesse is a quick read about two unsympathetic characters: Cécile and Raymond. Father and daughter are both "egotists" who live only for the moment. Their boundary-less attachment to each other hints at emotional incest, but neither one of them is show more capable of love. The last page reveals that Cécile is just as frivolous as her father. Even Cécile's "tristesse" (sadness) at the end of the summer seems more like melodramatic self-indulgence than genuine sorrow for her actions.

Moreover, Anne's relationship with Raymond doesn't make much sense. What is such a successful, self-assured woman doing with such a shallow man?

Despite my reservations, I still found this novella a decent summer read. show less

Seventeen year-old Cecile, her father Raymond and his current girlfriend Elsa are spending the summer in a Mediterranean coastal village. Cecile's mother died several years before and ever since, Raymond has had a string of brief romances. Cecile adores her father and isn't bothered at all by his selfish manipulations of the women he moves in and out of her life and even makes excuses for his behavior until he shows a preference for old friend Anne's company rather than her own.

It's hard to believe that Sagan was just eighteen years old when she wrote this. There is a maturity in both the writing and subject that I would never expect to see in a teenager or even someone ten years older. The story of Cecile's change from a child's show more reverence for a father who charmingly mistreats women, including Cecile, to a woman who has experienced real remorse and sadness is powerful and so very infused with the sophistication of France of the 1950's. Highly recommended. show less

Kellemesen csalódtam, mert előzetes elvárásaim ölég csekélyek voltak. Két okból. 1.) Ha 18 éves übertehetséges írótitánról hallok, akkor nálam rögtön elkezd dolgozni a gyanakvás – ez biztos a szokásos aggkori irigységből fakad. 2.) Az alaptörténet, valljuk meg, elég irritáló. A Jó reggelt, búbánat! világa olyan univerzum, amiben a szereplőknek sem anyagi, sem egészségügyi téren nincs semmiféle problémája, hát abból, ami rendelkezésükre áll (öregedés és testi vágy) konstruálnak maguknak, de akkorát, hogy ihaj. Képzelem, ’87-ben a Kádár-rendszerben szocializálódó olvasóközönség mekkora szemeket meresztett az ilyesfajta vergődések láttán… Másrészről viszont Sagan ezt show more a közeget olyan eleganciával és visszafogottsággal adja elő, amit csak bámulni tudok, pláne, hogy az ő korában a legtöbben olyan versek farigcsálásával töltöttük az időnket, amiken legfeljebb a saját édesanyánk hatódott meg.

A Jó reggelt, búbánat! tulajdonképpen két teljesen különböző szögből olvasható. Az egyik nézőpontból ez a klasszikus gonosz mostohás magyar népmesék gallikán változata: él a paradicsomi szabadság állapotában apa és lánya (de olyan nyitott szülő-gyermek kontaktusban, hogy attól egy visszafogottan konzervatív tisztségviselő a szociális minisztériumból rögvest köhögőgörcsöt kapna), ám egyszer csak megjelenik a femme fatale, egy idősödő, rohadtul decens és céltudatos asszony személyében, aki felborogatja a kukákat. De az intelligens és életteli leány nem hagyja magát, mert ha harc, hát legyen harc. A másik olvasat szerint pedig ez a könyv egy olyan kamaszról szól, aki annyira nem tudja, mit csináljon feneketlen jódolgában, hogy a nálánál idősebbek ítélőbírájául nevezi ki magát, és sátáni ravaszsággal szétcincálja apja aktuális kapcsolatát. Szerintem az a legelragadóbb ebben a könyvben, hogy egyik opciót sem lehet kizárni. Sagan van annyira ügyes, hogy a két ellentétes nézőpontot egyszerre futtassa, ami arra kényszeríti az olvasót, hogy folyamatosan összevesse egyiket a másikkal. (Már ha nem eleve elkötelezett valamelyik mellett.) Mindenképpen bravúros húzás.

A kötet második kisregénye (Szereti Brahmsot?) ugyanazt a témát variálja, mint az első. A szabadság kockázatainak regénye: mi történik, ha addig ragaszkodunk a függetlenségünkhöz, hogy a végén az elmagányosodottság kellős közepént találjuk magunkat? A szereplők sem az első, sem a második „megíródásban” nem lelik meg a választ erre a kérdésre, ami úgy fest, a sagan-i életmű központi konfliktusa – mindenesetre itt is jól olvashatóan és tetszetősen kínlódnak nekünk. Bár a Szereti Brahmsot? nem tűnik olyan erősnek, mint az első kisregény, de azért rutinos, szép szöveg életteli szereplőkkel. Kicsit mintha iparosmunka lenne, de annak kiváló. show less

This is France’s answer to Catcher in the Rye and, considering it was published when Sagan was only 18, is astonishing for that. The writing shows great maturity and insight into human character, particularly that of older adult relationships, which elude me even today, let alone when I was 18!

The story is from the point of view of an adolescent, Cecile, watching her father deal with a couple of women who want to marry him. I really appreciated the way that Sagan described the feelings that accompany this. I went through something similar although I was only 10 years old at the time. I think she gets it spot on.

Cecile has a hard time accepting the fact that her father has chosen to marry despite being happy with a string of show more girlfriends and living what Cecile thinks is an idyllic carefree life. The conception that there is nothing to gain in the impending marriage for her middle-aged father is, I think, a very natural one for someone in their teens who would reject anything that would tie them down.

Cecile is a complex character and although anyone writing about a teen would have to take this into account, to do it when you yourself are a teen is quite amazing I think. She is torn between greatly admiring the woman her father has chosen while abhorring the idea of her becoming her stepmother. This leads to a great deal of conflict, understandably, although most of this is psychological rather than physical.

It’s a very short book and can easily be read in one sitting and, in fact, I think would benefit from that approach so that you immerse yourself in the mind of Cecile with no distractions. show less

Cécile, seventeen years old, has been living with her handsome widowed father Raymond, whom she adores, for the past two years, ever since he took her out of convent school and introduced her to his world of beautiful women and fashionable nightclubbing. Now he's rented a villa in the Côte d'Azure for the summer, and Cécile is looking forward to an easy and fun-filled summer by the beach, which she knows will be filled with his father's women, though she doesn't mind this—they come and go and he's always taken Cécile in his confidence, and she finds his frivolity suits his character just fine. His current mistress is called Elsa and all three get along very well. Then she meets a young man in his mid-20s called Cyril who seems to show more be in love with her and she indulges him in a love affair on a whim, to pass the time and because that is what is done by her friends, and certainly by the likes of her father.

All is fun and good times, until Anne Larsen appears on the scene rather unexpectedly. Anne had been a friend of Cécile's mother, now dead for 15 years. Anne is a serious woman who has her own fashion business; refined and cultured, she had taken Cécile in hand some years ago, had shown her how a young lady should comport herself, taught her proper deportment, how to dress, how to modulate her speech, in short, given her a veneer of sophistication the girl had lacked until then and has put to good use ever since. But now it seems Anne and her father are suddenly in love with each other, which seems so unlikely! Surely he is much too dissolute for Anne? Surely she is much to staid for his tastes? But overnight, they decide to get married, and now Elsa must leave the villa. Cécile is outraged; surely they can't just turn out Elsa without a word of explanation? But worse is yet to come. Anne has decided to take the young girl in hand again. She is not doing well in her studies and exams are looming, so now she must spend her time studying hard, and never mind the beautiful summer weather and the beckoning beach. Worse yet, Raymond sides with his fiancée whenever she adopts a hard line, which is completely unlike him. Cécile can't believe her loving father would let himself be influenced to that degree. She comes up with a plan which will surely put Anne in her place. She will orchestrate it all: she tells Cyril and Elsa to act like lovers and appear in front of her father as if coincidentally to incite his jealousy. He is in his 40s after all, and surely he will be jealous to see his beautiful former mistress on the rebound with a much younger handsome man. Cécile counts on Raymond's weakness for beautiful women to lead him straight back into Elsa's arm. She knows her father well. She truly believes this will teach Anne a lesson, that she will be forced to give them back a little of their former freedom if she truly loves them. But her plan backfires and brings tragedy instead.

I picked up this slim novel as an audiobook, extremely well narrated by French actress Sara Giraudeau, who was very convincing as Cécile, listening to it in just one short sitting. I'd forgotten what year it had been published in and assumed it was from the early 60s, and upon checking, was shocked by just how advanced it was for it's time. True, the French have always had different notions from the English when it comes to sexuality and the rearing of children, but all the same, the attitudes adopted by Cécile and her father here seemed more in tune with the anything-goes 70s or even our own era than the postwar early 50s, and more surprising yet was just how mature Cécile's voice was. Perhaps the way she decided to deal with Anne's strict presence showed her to be a child still, but her narration was sophisticated, and when one considers that Françoise Sagan herself wrote the book when she herself was only 18 years old, basing herself on personal experiences, it is clear she was a unique and exceptionally precocious writer. This book might not suit everyone, since the material may be shocking to some readers, but I really loved it for how beautifully it is written. Highly recommended for readers with a liberal mind. show less

Françoise Sagan - [Bonjour Tristesse]

Rich teenager behaves badly in the South of France.

I picked out [Un sang d'aquarelle] Sagan's 1987 novel from my local library, then realised that I had not read her first and most famous novel [Bonjour Tristesse] still lurking on my shelf and so I read that instead. At the time of publication 1954, it was a great success and reading it today I can understand why. It is totally irreverent and depicts a lifestyle that some may find attractive. It certainly upset the catholic french author François Mauriac who wrote a critical review, which may have added to its success.

The story is written in the first person: Cecile is on holiday with her father (Raymond) who has rented a villa by the seaside for a show more couple of months. Cecile admires her father's easy charm and is not surprised when they are joined on holiday by Elsa, her 40 year old father's younger lover. Raymond has also invited Anne a woman of his own age who was a friend of his deceased wife. Raymond falls in love with Anne, Elsa moves out and Anne tries to take Cecile under her wing. Cecile is enjoying a first romance with Cyril who is staying in a neighbouring villa and doesn't take kindly to Anne's attempts to reign her in, and make her study for her school exams. Cecile plots to drive Anne away from her father.

This sounds like a plot for a Young Adult novel, but Sagan has captured the egotistical life style of Cecile so well, that there can be no moral conclusions for those younger readers. It is well plotted, well written and captures a hedonistic lifestyle quite superbly. Sagan was 17 years old when she started Bonjour Tristesse and its publication the next year was an immediate success and must have hit a chord with readers ready to forget the austerity of the war years. It is Cecile's point of view that drives this novel: her nascent love affair and struggles to assert her freedom against a background of fast cars, dilettante rich men, and their women, make this a fascinating read 4 stars. show less