Bonjour tristesse post II

This short books ends in tragedy and leaves you thinking about the demands love can make both between lovers and family and the costs of physiological games.

Bullet points between pages 51 - 107 (part II)

* As Anne starts to get more involved in the lives of Cecile and Raymond trying to get them to move away from their hedonistic lifestyle cecile seizes on the chance arrival of Elsa and plans to use her to lure her father away from Anne and marriage

* Under Cecile's instructions Elsa stages a love affair with Cyril emphasising to the father that he is getting old and his days of romancing types like Elsa will be over when he gets married

* In between becoming physically involved with Cyril, feeling guilty over plotting Anne's downfall and studying for her exam, ironically in philosophy, Cecile starts to reach the climax of her plan to manipulate her father's feelings

* Things come to a head when Anne discovers Raymond kissing Elsa, storms off in tears and then as the father and daughter write letters of remorse to get her back the police phone saying she is dead after a motor accident

* Cecile thinks it is a suicide staged to look like an accident but perhaps that is because she is feeling so guilty. They attend the funeral at Paris where Cecile shuns Cyril, despite him earlier asking her to marry him

* The book ends with both finding new, but obviously temporary loves, and returning back to their hedonism, which Anne had fought in vain to break them out of.

A powerful story about the dangers of getting involved between a man and a woman and between a daughter and a father. A full review will follow on Sunday...