Bonjour Paris!

If you are fascinated with French culture, literature, or simply Paris like me, I would definitely recommend checking out Francoise Sagan's novels.

Sagan is an icon in contemporary  world literature. Her novels encompass the easy, bourgeois lifestyle in Paris, where love is passionate, possessive, but often fleeting. Her characters are young and egoistic, used to the idle and carefree Paris life. However, their love affairs are troubled, complicated by marriage, betrayals, lies, age, and social status. The novels are light and easy to read but at the same time they deeply analyze the nature of human character when standing in front of sophisticated choices. To add, the author was only 18 when she wrote her first novel Bonjour Tristesse. One might easily be mistaken it is written by a woman with years of love experience, as Sagan describes complicated love stories with maturity, sensibility, and often scrutiny.

So far I have read Bonjour Tristesse, Dans un Mois, dans un An and Un Certain Sourire. Francoise Sagan's style is recognizable in all of these novels, yet each and every one of them is different and special, raising yet another issue about love, loyalty, responsibility, and betrayal. Aimez-vous Brahms is her next piece, which is expecting me on my bookshelf right after I finish Rhett Butler's People.

Her novels are usually short, about 150-200 pages. I assure you that if they grab you from the beginning, you won't let go until you read them cover to cover. Personally, I finished those 3 in about 4-5 days. It is that obsessing!. If only I could read them in French, I believe the experience would be much more valuable. Sadly, my French is as good as to say BONJOUR PARIS!