Student Blogs

 Of all the books on the reading list, this is the only one I've read before. In fact, I studied it in the original language as part of my French A-Level just before I left the UK. And to be honest, I didn't like it then, and I don't like it now. 

I feel sorry for Cecile, but I just know that I would find her incredibly irritating if I had the misfortune of encountering her in real life. That being said, the book brings such vivid images of an upscale, movie-like experience of the French Riviera that I appreciate it just for that. I also think it's kind of fun that the book was so controversial upon its release. They just weren't ready for Cecile's unladylike-ness or for all the raunchy behaviour going on.

As I mentioned, I don't really like Cecile. In the book she's 17, Sagan herself was 18 at the time of publication, I myself was 17 when I read it for the first time, and at the ripe old age of 20 I can make the executive, yet humble, declaration that we girls that age can be messy. Cecile really takes the cake though, with all that palaver over a rather Oedipal obsession with her dad. If I could describe her in two words, they would be: callous disregard. She just doesn't care. Or doesn't think. Or both.

She's clearly not stupid, despite her disinclination toward school. If she didn't have two braincells to rub together then she wouldn't have come up with the bizarre plan to invoke jealousy in her dad and Anne. But the very fact that it happened is just weird. On the one hand, I can sympathise with her fear of change, and her satisfaction with her current position in life and with her father. On the other hand it's just immature to expect everything to stay the same indefinitely, and the lengths she went to in trying to keep everything the same is just ridiculous.

Speaking of ridiculousness, I question all the characters' thought processes. Even Cyril, who is allegedly a law student goes along with Cecile's plan? Elsa I understand. The poor girl just wants Raymond back and nobody (myself included) expects any better of her. But Cyril's haplessness is just disappointing. Anne is a complicated one, though. She's a certified #girlboss and I reluctantly respect her, but she definitely went too far in trying to control Cecile. Did she though? I don't know, I haven't fully made up my mind. On the one hand maybe it's not too much to ask for her to go back to school, but on the other hand I thought the many comments on her behaviour and her appearance were unproductive and unhelpful.

Despite all the issues I have with the characters and their decisions, I loved reading this book. I loved thinking back to where I was in my life when I read it the first time (17 was a very happy age for me, to an extent like Cecile) and especially recalling certain words and phrases that the original version used. It felt very nostalgic reading the story again; even though it's only been 3-ish years, it feels like a lifetime ago (immigration and a pandemic will do that to you).

The question I now pose is: Assuming that Cecile's bubble of naivete would have eventually burst, what do you imagine would have caused it?

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 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. 

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 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. 

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Joseph Zobel’s Black Shack Alley tells a story about life in Martinique from the point of view of a black boy named Jose. Even though the novel stresses his process of personal growth throughout, it generates broader implications of contextual consideration in various aspects in terms of literary analysis. It is vital to consider the […] read full post >>

Sagan’s “Bonjour Tristesse” is about a 17-year-old girl named Cécile who has family issues. Her relationship with her father significantly affects the type of lifestyle she lives. The narrator is emotionally and psychologically connected to her single father, who serves as the main male figure in her life and is the only source of parental […] read full post >>

This is a coming-of-age book that deals with the complexity of love and familial problems. If I were to describe Cécile’s character I would use the word fragile. She seems to have no understanding of who she is and what she wants. One moment she is in love with Cyril, the next she views their […] read full post >>

This week’s reading I found riveting, I truly could not put it down. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan highlights the dynamic relationship between father and daughter, in this case Cécile and her wealthy father Raymond. The setting takes place on the French Riviera on a summer trip with Cécile, her father and her fathers latest […] read full post >>

Carmen Laforet writes in a way that allows the reader to fully immerse themselves in Andrea’s brutal encounters while simultaneously reminding us how resilient she is. The same resilience is instilled in us, once we recognize that Andrea can handle whatever comes her way! While reading Nada, I could really appreciate the amount of depth […] read full post >>

 I read Black Shack Alley this week, and here are some of my reading experiences.

For me, Amantine, little Joseph's grandmother, is the unique character in the article, with a tragic but extraordinary fate. The author describes how his grandmother correctly made little Joseph's life ordinary and warm in such a poor situation. Despite the hard work on the plantation and how the clothes on his body were worn, little Joseph never touched the ruthless side of reality under the care of his grandmother. As a result, grandmother Amantine's image of a loving, simple, and hard-working black worker jumped on the page. Later articles tell the story of Joseph Jr. and her grandmother living a poor and miserable life on a sugar cane plantation. Nevertheless, The assertive Little Joseph's grandmother, Amantine, understood that knowledge was the key to the broader world. She worked hard to get a better life for Little Joseph.

By looking up relevant information, we can learn that Black Shack Alley is set in the French colony of Martinique in the 1930s. In this context, the meagre income and hard life of black workers and various painful histories are described in the book, which makes people move and think about it. In this case, the children in the plantation have always maintained their innocence and childlike fun; the brave struggle to find a wider world and the future expectations that the future grandmother and little Joseph still have. This tragic background has formed a sad and touching life and expressed a kind of awe-inspiring concept. The book's rhetoric is not gorgeous, but just describing the background of this protagonist is enough to make the reader experience a dull feeling in this heavy and straightforward experience, a reflection on history based on people's empathy.

In the book, childhood is always cheerful and straightforward. Those children who do not have a clear understanding of the nature of life do not care about rudimentary food and clothes that cannot cover privacy; everything is innocent and funny as if adding a sunny filter to the hard life. Looking at the author's life from the perspective of his childhood, the cruel life we can feel is softened by such a filter. So this misery, which should have been stinging, became a continuous dullness. My question is: Is it easier for the reader to have the courage to continue reading than to bluntly analyze this tragic experience from an adult's point of view?

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 I read Black Shack Alley this week, and here are some of my reading experiences.

For me, Amantine, little Joseph's grandmother, is the unique character in the article, with a tragic but extraordinary fate. The author describes how his grandmother correctly made little Joseph's life ordinary and warm in such a poor situation. Despite the hard work on the plantation and how the clothes on his body were worn, little Joseph never touched the ruthless side of reality under the care of his grandmother. As a result, grandmother Amantine's image of a loving, simple, and hard-working black worker jumped on the page. Later articles tell the story of Joseph Jr. and her grandmother living a poor and miserable life on a sugar cane plantation. Nevertheless, The assertive Little Joseph's grandmother, Amantine, understood that knowledge was the key to the broader world. She worked hard to get a better life for Little Joseph.

By looking up relevant information, we can learn that Black Shack Alley is set in the French colony of Martinique in the 1930s. In this context, the meagre income and hard life of black workers and various painful histories are described in the book, which makes people move and think about it. In this case, the children in the plantation have always maintained their innocence and childlike fun; the brave struggle to find a wider world and the future expectations that the future grandmother and little Joseph still have. This tragic background has formed a sad and touching life and expressed a kind of awe-inspiring concept. The book's rhetoric is not gorgeous, but just describing the background of this protagonist is enough to make the reader experience a dull feeling in this heavy and straightforward experience, a reflection on history based on people's empathy.

In the book, childhood is always cheerful and straightforward. Those children who do not have a clear understanding of the nature of life do not care about rudimentary food and clothes that cannot cover privacy; everything is innocent and funny as if adding a sunny filter to the hard life. Looking at the author's life from the perspective of his childhood, the cruel life we can feel is softened by such a filter. So this misery, which should have been stinging, became a continuous dullness. My question is: Is it easier for the reader to have the courage to continue reading than to bluntly analyze this tragic experience from an adult's point of view?

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The original description of Bonjour Tristesse really captured my attention towards the book. I felt that I would be able to resonate with the main character, assuming she is around my age and the problems she faces throughout the book. And as much as I could relate to Cecile, the plot went in a different …

Continue reading "Bonjour Tristesse"

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While I enjoyed this novel and found myself reading it quite quickly, I found the narrator, Cecile, to be highly unlikeable. Cecile’s undesirable attitude is prevalent from the beginning of the novel when she shamelessly describes how her pleasure is solely derived from money and other material items. She goes so far as to say […] read full post >>

On page 128, there was a line that struck me. It went as follows “now we only have each other. We are alone and unhappy.” This line absolutely shook me! This book did not go as I anticipated it to at all! I am quite surprised at the ending and turn of events. The relationships […] read full post >>

This Spanish girl’s experience seemed strange to me. Her upbringing has been in tune with her age and the social environment in which she grew up since she became an orphan. Because it was unsurprising that there was a tumultuous family dynamic during the turbulent years of the Spanish Civil War. Carmen uses lyrical language … Continue reading Nada review → read full post >>

Maria Luisa Bombal’s The Shrouded Woman is the story of a woman who was once a wife and loving mother who is looking beyond the grave at how her loved ones cope with her passing. Personally, I find the use of an already dead protagonist to be really interesting, as it allows the use of […] read full post >>