Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan

 This week, I decided to read Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan. Like another student mentioned in their blog, I felt compelled to read it, as i thought i would likely be able to relate to it. This story follows a 17 year old girl named Cecile who is on summer vacation in the south of France. The novel explores, her relationship with her widowed father, his love interests, as well as her own. I assumed that I would like this story because i too experienced a relationship at 17, furthermore I have divorced parents and had to go through the process of watching them both move on to new people. However, after reading the entire novel I found it not as relatable as i had initially thought it might be. Also, i found that my opinions on each of the characters shifted back and forth quite a bit throughout. 

The characters that stood out to me the most over the course of the novel were Cecile, Anne and Cyril. At first, I seriously sympathized with Cecile. Her mother had passed away and the new woman that her father had decided to marry wasn't exactly ideal in Ceciles eyes. Even though Cecile was used to seeing her father having mistresses, his decision to settle down with one that she did not even like, would be an incredibly hard thing to accept. I think i slowly started to lose sympathy for her though, as she became quite manipulative of almost everyone in her life. Creating an incredibly methodical plan to have Anne removed from her fathers life, was surely not the high road i was hoping she would take. That being said though, I was not fond of Anne either. Although she seemed like the responsible role model that her and her father may have needed, I absolutely hated the way she spoke to Cecile. In my opinion she was way out of line trying to completely shift her life. She tried to end her relationship with Cyril, made multiple comments about her weight and appearance, as well as forcing her study, which she had absolutely no interest in doing. Maybe Anne's intentions were pure but it just came off as controlling and invasive. Lastly, I think the only character that i had lasting sympathy for, was Cyril. He had true love for Cecile and was sadly roped into her deranged plan to get rid of Anne. Her feelings for him were always wishy washy and i had kind of wished that she would either commit to him, or leave him.