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Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature
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About This Book
A lighthearted look at how to bring more humor, happiness, and joie de vivre into our lives through French literature Like many people the world over, Viv Groskop wishes she was a little more French. A writer, comedian, and journalist, Groskop studied the language obsessively starting at age 11, and spent every vacation in France, desperate to escape her Englishness and to have some French chic rub off on her. In Au Revoir, Tristesse, Groskop mixes literary history and memoir to explore how the classics of French literature can infuse our lives with joie de vivre and teach us how to say goodbye to sadness. From the frothy hedonism of Colette and the wit of Cyrano de Bergerac to the intoxicating universe of Marguerite Duras and the heady passions of Les Liaisons dangereuses, this is a love letter to great French writers. With chapters on Marcel Proust, Victor Hugo, Gustave Flaubert, Stendhal, Honoré de Balzac, Albert Camus, and of course Françoise Sagan, this is a delectable read for book lovers everywhere.
Reviews
"Reading Groskop, we lose our academic pretensions and realize our love for literature—that is, for books that measure themselves against life rather than against the latest grad-school fad ..."
"A lighthearted read for all fans of French literature."
"offers the reader a handy shortcut through the hard graft of learning these lessons for oneself ..."
"Here, too, she steals the show from her ostensible subject, using ironic autobiography and solid scholarship to guide us into the steamy territory of modern French letters ..."
"It is drawn from a peculiar no man's slot on the shelves; somewhere between the pass notes and the personal memoirs, next to self-help manuals and alongside comedy."
"The book's greatest asset lies in Groskop's restating of insights derived from literature ..."
"However, her attempt to show 'the intersection between Frenchness and happiness' by glossing over works by Proust, Hugo, Camus, Flaubert, Balzac and others is unconvincing ..."
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