Reminded me a fair bit of Gatsby, although not as perfect, of course. This was Nicolette's prospective take on it, which, in retrospect, paints a fair picture of what Bonjour Tristesse is like:
As an interesting aside, this book was published when our author was just 18. Apparently she was nicknamed "the charming little monster" which makes me grin no-end. Anyway, she had a varied life, writing several books and plays, getting married a couple of times, hanging out with Truman Capote for a bit, being convicted of using cocaine, and being left in a coma after a car accident in her Aston Martin. Ooh, she was also done for tax fraud in 2002 which resulted in the French government taking the royalties from all her works and leaving her essentially penniless and relying on the kindness of her friends. How fun!
Basically it's one of those glittering literary baubles, fleeting but somehow perfectly crystallised, both in itself and in terms of what it depicts - here, a kind of summer-dream end of innocence narrative of the sort that we all always hold so dear when done well, recognisably universal precisely inasmuch as it's writ in the details of Cécile's rueful recollection of the fateful events surrounding her and her supporting cast (Anne, Cyril, Elsa and, of course, her playboy father Raymond).
