She slingshots between crushing doubt and steely resolve over and over again.Īs a reader, I find first person perspective to be overused and often misapplied, but this is a book that simply couldn’t work any other way. But while Cécile does show regret for her actions, it is the ambivalence of her attitude that makes her intriguing. A more straightforward story would paint Anne as the villain, or at least in the wrong, or flip it by making her misunderstood and forcing Cécile to learn the error of her ways.
As a storyline, it’s pretty trite, but where the book rises above its tropes is in the complex and partially unspoken feelings that Cécile has for Anne. Cécile, incensed, resolved to break them up.Īside from a budding romance with a neighbourhood boy, this is about all the plot the book has to offer. Her father soon leaves Elsa for Anne, who insists that Cécile show greater ambition for her studies. Their peaceful equilibrium is shattered by the arrival of Anne, an attractive and intelligent woman who is a friend of the family through her father’s late wife. The narrator, a world-weary seventeen-year-old named Cécile, vacations with her father and his young girlfriend Elsa on the French Riviera. Like Nabokov’s Lolita or Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, Bonjour Tristesse is less about the story it tells than the person telling it. It would be interesting to pick up the version she gave me and see how it matches up to my interpretation.
However, I make a point of reading French works in the original wherever possible, and fortunately I was able to find a copy at my local library. I encountered this book on recommendation from a friend, who bought me the English translation.
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