Bonjour Tristesse, Francoise Sagan (Dutton, 1955) ****

It's a remarkable first novel, especially so for an eighteen year old, and it was quite the rage when it hit the bookstores in 1955 (some of you may remember the fim version, starring Jean Seberg in one of her best roles) . The title means, approximately, Hello Sorrow, which refers to a loss of innocence on several levels.

Cecile, a young student who's just flunked her first year exams at the Sorbonne (as had the author) is vacationing at a villa on the beach with her widower father, a shameless womanizer. When Anne, an older woman and long-time family friend who truly loves her father pays them a visit, Cecile perceives a threat to the close friendship she has with her father and their casual, if wanton lifestyle. She orchestrates an elaborate scheme to foil their marriage plans with the aid of a young man she's just met that summer (her first lover) and her father's most recent mistress, an alluring woman not much older than herself.

The story, while light reading, ends...as it must...somewhat tragically. My reaction to the ending when I re-read this story, however, was that it was not nearly as tragic as it had seemed to me when I first read it some four decades ago. There's a classic 'coming of age' aspect to this story and a certain nostalgia that very much justified a second reading.