Cloud Book Lead Reading | Literature | Françoise Sagan, "Hello, Sorrow"
It is a very elegant and exquisite novel, with beautiful beaches, brilliant sunshine, romantic but uninhibited father and daughter, and a beautiful and solemn mistress.
Cecil, a 17-year-old girl, is accustomed to living a bohemian and absurd life with her father, but is vaguely guided into a decent and elegant life by her father's new mistress, Anna. What she couldn't stand most was that her father, who was a wanderer, was going to marry her. This meant that she could not continue to squander her youth, could not do whatever she wanted, and the most terrible thing was that she could not confront anna so gracefully. So, she found her father's old lover Elsa, and together with her boyfriend Cyril, devised a plan to deliberately make Anna bump into her father and Elsa's embrace, hoping to cause Anna to leave them. Unexpectedly, Anna left in a trance, Cecil and her father began to think of everything about Anna, madly trying to get her back, confess to her, pray for her, but only to hear the news that she died in a car accident... The last thing has developed irretrievablely.
Cecil and her father continued their former debauchery, but life did not follow its past trajectory strictly, and an atmosphere of confusion and caution pervaded after that summer. Cecil welcomed the first serious sorrow of her life with a low call.
"It was only at dawn, as I lay in bed, listening to the only car sound on the streets of Paris, that memories sometimes bubbled up against my will: summer and all the memories of it returned. Anna, Anna! In the darkness, I called out the name softly, for a long time. And something came to my mind. I closed my eyes and called out its name to welcome it: Hello, sorrow. ”
In 1954, Sagan was only 18 years old when he wrote Hello, Sorrow. The beginning of the novel is classic, "This never-before feeling haunts me with a disturbing and sweet taste, and I hesitate to know whether it is appropriate to give the solemn and beautiful name of sorrow." ”
Critics have a mixed reputation for her, often saying that her vision is too narrow and her artistic conception is far from lofty. (Women writers are often surrounded by such morals, but no one knows that this is the whole world that women should have.) Critics often say that this is a daring girl who has written an "immoral novel", a novel that "has nothing but loveless bedtime; nothing but a high-class car and a lot of whiskey", but no one does not admit that it is impossible to let go.
Sagan, squandering money, indulging in sex, and obsessed with carnival balls. She pursued sensory stimulation, drove barefoot, and eventually hit her skull. She opposed France's war against Algeria and supported the feminist movement. Her special friendship with President Mitterrand ... She lived the Cecil-like life to the fullest. In her boredom, she may also encounter sorrow, and she greets her, "bonjour, tristesse." For those of us who value reason, family, reputation, self-esteem, decency, grace and upbringing, sorrow is too overwhelming, it is too ambiguous, indulgent and lacking in beauty. For Sagan, this is a noble, solemn feeling.
"Goodbye, sorrow. Hello, sorrow... Although depressed, sadness has a beautiful face. This is the sentence of the poet Paul Elujah. France has never lacked romance and warmth. Sagan's writing conveys a typical French romance, melancholy, and extravagance.
Kenzaburo Oe recalls that era only remembering the Beatles, Stalin's death, Salinger's watch, and Sagan's sorrows. For my contemporaries, Sagan is a symbol of unforgettable years, and for me, Sagan is Paris. Indulge in a sense of innocence, elegance, nobility in the midst of erosion, emptiness and indulgence in Paris.
I like the portrait of the elder Sagan very much, and when you see her clear and cunning gaze, you can understand why people always have the impression of her as a teenage writer, always a rebellious girl with sorrow. ~
This article was first published on the WeChat public account [Cloud Scroll Reading Yunshu Xing road]