Bonjour, Tristesse

"Bonjour, Tristesse," the delightful novel by Francoise Sagan (real name Francoise Quoirez) first entered my fashion radar a few years ago while reading the August 2005 issue of Vanity Fair. I always analyze their choices for the International Best Dressed List, particularly anyone who is involved in the fashion industry. Carine Roitfeld, the Editor in Chief of French Vogue, was profiled, so, of course, I paid particular attention. Inductees are asked questions such as "What is your favorite piece of couture clothing?" or "What charitable cause is most important to you?" As a response to "What is your favorite book?" Carine replied "Bonjour, Tristesse." I made a mental note at that point to read it (though, four years later, I still hadn't). The book entered my fashion radar again more recently when I was idly roaming through the features on vogue.com. A contributing Vogue stylist (also French) cited "Bonjour, Tristesse" as her favorite book. It was settled. If this was a book that was important to the fashion cognoscenti, I simply had to read it. I asked my father (the most well-read person I know) if he had read the book (of course, he had read it in both English and French), and if he could procure a copy for me. A day after a copy arrived from the library, my dad found a vintage edition for thirty-five cents.

I am so happy that I read this book! It is the tale of a young girl, Celine, and the summer that has tragic consequences for both Celine and her debonair, womanizing father, Raymond. Penned when Francoise Sagan was herself a young woman of only 18 or 19, the prose perfectly captures the attitudes and mannerisms of a young girl who is just beginning to grow into a young woman. More than a coming-of-age tale, the book illuminates what happens when the bohemian world of Celine and Raymond collides with the bourgeois world of a chic Parisienne, Anne. Two hapless lovers of Celine (Cyril) and Raymond (Elsa), respectively, unwittingly play a role in the tragedy that unfolds. The drama of "Bonjour, Tristesse" is set against the beauty and lavish splendor of the French Riviera at a time in life when both Celine and her father were prodigal libertines. One can only leave with the sense that this lifestyle will sharply change for both... or then again, will they ever change?

A film version of the book was made in 1958 with Jean Seberg as the young Cecile and David Niven as her father. For now, I can only speak of my great enthusiasm for the book, which I highly recommend to all lovers of the written word.