Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
| Format | US | UK |
|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | Buy |
Coming of age tale with tragic end.
What about “Bonjour Tristesse”, written by Francoise Sagan when she was just 18?
I think this book is just compulsory reading for women of any age. It’s a wonderful book, apart from anything else. It gives an amazing insight into that awful stage of becoming a woman. And I think part of what we’ve been talking about — whether you want to call it glamour or sexual attractiveness or whatever — is really about being a woman. And “Bonjour Tristesse” describes that transition into adulthood very well.
I love the main character in the book, the young heroine Cécile, but also Anne Larsen, the woman whom the father loves falls in love with. I think she is just this very chic, iconic, French woman, 42 years old, who makes an effort to look good at all times, which is something French women are very good at. So even when Anne comes down to breakfast, she’s wearing lip gloss and an ironed shirt and even though she’s casual, she still looks gorgeous in every way. I think this book is just such a classic and it gives you a very strong sense of French glamour, French style. There’s a real style about this book.
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Helena Frith Powell is the author of “Two Lipsticks and a Lover” – also published in the US as “All You Need to be Impossibly French.” In it, she tries to identify what it is that makes French women so chic compared to the rest of us. Her other books include “Ciao Bella: in Search of My Italian Father” and most recently, “The Viva Mayr Diet: 14 Days to a Flatter Stomach and a Younger You.” She formerly wrote the ‘French Mistress’ column in the Sunday Times about living in France, and now lives in Abu Dhabi where she is a staff reporter at The National Magazine.
