Bonjour tristesse

The title translates as "Hello, Sadness," which is appropriate. Cecile, aged 17, lives with her widowed father Raymond, a 40-year-old playboy. They do not have the typical father-daughter relationship. Raymond is immature and self-centered and treats his daughter like an adult. He even takes Cecile to casinos. At one point early in the book, Cecile says, "I cannot imagine a better or a more amusing companion." Companion, not father. Raymond has a succession of mistresses, the latest of whom is Elsa, a 29-year-old redhead. Elsa comes to spend her summer with Raymond and Cecile, who likes her. Cecile has come to accept that none of her father's lovers will last. She enjoys the carefree life she leads with Raymond - but everything changes with the arrival of Anne, an old friend of her father and mother. Things began to change in ways that Cecile does not understand or like - and she decides to take action with tragic consequences.

Francoise Sagan wrote this short novel - my copy is just 130 pages - when she was a teenager herself. She was just 19 years old when it was published in 1954. I would call it semi-autobiographical due to the character of Cecile, who certainly resembles Sagan in many ways. However, there are noticeable differences. For example, Cecile is an only child, but Sagan was the youngest of three; Raymond is a libertine, but Sagan's father was a respectable family man. Still, having read a short biography of Sagan, I can't help but see her in Cecile.

I recommend the translation by Irene Ash, published by Harper Perennial/Modern Classics. It has a section in the back of the book with short blurbs about Sagan and an interview with her in 1956 that was published in the Paris Review. There is also a short essay, "Speeding," written by Sagan which is very appropriate both for this novel and Sagan's driving history (she had an accident in 1957 that left her in a coma for three days).