BONJOUR TRISTESSE / A CERTAIN SMILE by FRACOISE SAGAN

BONJOUR TRISTESSE by FRACOISE SAGAN

French Literature at its finest. There are actually two novels in this book and Bonjour Tristesse is the first and that is the one I’ll review first.

The novella (100 pages) takes place over a summer on the French Riviera. Cecile and her father have rented the villa for two months to escape from the heat of Paris. Her widowed father brings with him his young and beautiful mistress, but then another guest turns up... The star of this book, though, is the setting. The French Riviera. The beach. The glistening ocean. The sailing. The sex. The sun. The wine. The cigarettes. The sadness that only comes with being seventeen and in love, or not in love.

I just can’t get over the fact that the author was 18 when she wrote this.

A CERTAIN SMILE by FRACOISE SAGAN

Well, well, well, I had no idea that I could love the second novella more than the first. What an exquisite story.
I felt like I was reading a French Sally Rooney. It is very much like Conversations with Friends, which is one of my all-time favourites.

Sagan is very clever with her use of dialogue, which feels ever so French and ever so honest. I also loved the thoughts of the main character which were so glum and young. It fully reminded me of being an eighteen year old and feeling bored by everything but also terribly shy of everyone.
I adored this story.

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