[ book tip by Hannah Geismar ] Cécile is 17 and spending the summer at the French seaside with her lovable playboy father, who has rented a big house for Cécile, himself and his young girlfriend Elsa. Cécile spent several years at a boarding school after her mother died, it's only recently that she has started living with her father again - and she has been excited to discover that his lifestyle is fast, easy and full of fun. Cécile loves her father dearly, she loves partying in Paris with him and his various girlfriends, and the summer looks like it’s going to be more of the same. One lazy, sunlit day at the beach takes the other - until her father falls for a 'real' woman, Anne, whose presence threatens to disturb the carefree life that father and daughter have created for themselves. Cécile watches her father and Anne's relationship with growing jealousy and concern, while at the same time living her own lovestory with a young guy, Cyril. And suddenly things change: Life stops being easy and starts getting complicated.

Bonjour Tristesse is not only a reminder that there was never anything innocent about being 17, it also pinpoints the fact that our idea of love as a clean and good feeling very often gets contradicted by what the reality of loving someone is actually like. The reality of loving can be murky and dark, and somewhere along the way it's easy to lose track of what's good and bad, right and wrong. While the story races forwards towards the inevitable climax, you keep hoping - like Cécile - that somehow everything will turn out right. But 'right' has lost its meaning somewhere along the way and Cécile is left with the consequences of her actions.

Bonjour Tristesse was Françoise Sagan's first book and it was published in 1954 when she was only 18 years old. It's no wonder the book became an instant classic: it's painfully well written and not to be missed.

Available in French, Editions Pocket, 2004

[ book info ] Sagan, Françoise: Bonjour Tristesse. Harper Perennial, 2001 .