Book Tamers| book reviews

I assume that this uncertainty which prevents me from writing about this book comes from the fact that I have already read Frederic Beigbeder and his younger feminine version Lolita Pille, who share the same bohemian spirit, the same spleen, the same boredom, like “the charming little monster”, Francoise Sagan. Well known for her parties and betting habits, naming herself after a character in Remembrance of Things Past, and entitling her first novel after a verse from Paul Eluard, Francoise Sagan faces a scandalous success at 18, when she writes this novel, which has been translated afterwards in many languages, allowing her to live the decadent life she was meant for.

Hello, sadness

“Hello, sadness” speaks of immorality, disgust and apathy of all kinds. Boredom is called sadness. Spoiled Cecile spends her summer holiday in her father’s villa, in the Mediterranean. The latter, an older version of a Don Juan, is attended by one of his numerous conquests, a shallow and demimonde woman, Elsa. The three of them live in the sweet decadent spirit until the arrival of an old friend of Cecile’s late mother, Anne.

Anne is serious, intelligent, has quiet and profound friends. Her arrival confuses Cecile’s world, pushing her to study and making her use her mind. Her inner peace and carelessness make her look too polite and distant. Frivolous, the relationship with her father, once warm and friendly, starts to fade away. Anne succeeds in interposing herself between Raymond and Elsa, making him wishing she was his wife. The story goes on and we get to know a very wicked Cecile. It all ends tragically for one of the two women who compete for Raymond’s heart.

Goodbye, sadness

After years spent in a monastery, Cecile lets herself go and enjoys water, sun and the little pleasures of life. Tasting love with a man eight years her senior, who becomes mad about her, she proves to be a very sensual woman: not only love gives her pure physical pleasures but it is also a great intellectual stimulus. The proximity of the verb “to make”, material and positive, to the word “love”, a poetical abstraction, offers her strange sensations. Exterior excitement during night life and smoking and drinking from a young age are a compulsory premise for inner well-being. Father and daughter go back to the superficial life they had before. Their existence appears shallow, with problems and responsibilities that are never truly there, with tears and loneliness which are never sad. No honorable sadness, just obsessive boredom and sweetness.

Written by: Ioana