Category: Francoise Sagan
book review – The Heart-Keeper
The more you think about this short book from Francoise Sagan the more you feel it has to be categorised as a black comedy.
The reason is that although it is short on humour the idea that someone could be spending their life under the same roof as a cool-hearted serial killer is a quirky one. Then add to that the power that is put in Dorothy’s hands knowing that anyone she dislikes will be killed by Lewis and it does start to set up a story that could have gone in another direction.
What keeps this story of a 45 year-old kind-hearted script writer who takes in a drugged out early twenties man is the message it is putting out about Hollywood and the hollowness of tinsel town.
Success seems to bring misery, jealously, spiritual emptiness and a drink and drugs problem. Large houses, luxury cars and glamorous friends are all arranged and approved by the contract made with the studio. Real people and real lives don’t really have a place in this artificial world.
Amongst all of this sits Dorothy who is considering starting a relationship with Paul. She has been married before but is a confident and attractive woman who likes her independence. Part of that independence is taking the decision to take home a young man that her and Paul knock down one evening. Dorothy offers Lewis her spare room and after a while a mainly silent but powerful relationship develops. It is neither sexual or parental but based around something more idealistic.
Lewis bumps off Dorothy’s alcoholic ex-husband, the dead man’s second wife and a very aggressive studio boss before Dorothy discovers his secret. Once she knows she is filled with terror and eventually to escape she marries Paul and flees on honeymoon to the continent. In the meantime Lewis has been nominated for an Oscar and has all the trimmings of success.
But when Dorothy returns and is given the tour of Lewis’s home she leaves only to find the young star whimpering at the car window begging to be taken back to her home. Paul seems to understand that they will never be rid of Lewis but with Dorothy as his wife he appears to be prepared to allow the threesome to exist under the same roof.
Quiet what Dorothy – who is the heart-keeper of not just Lewis but Paul – will do is left to your imagination because at that point the book ends.
What is similar to something like Bonjour Tristesse is the sense of a love triangle, fast cars that lose their brakes and crash with fatal consequences and the younger of the three main characters being the most emotionally intense.
An odd book that you certainly won’t forget.
Version read – penguin paperback
book review – The Heart-Keeper
The more you think about this short book from Francoise Sagan the more you feel it has to be categorised as a black comedy.
The reason is that although it is short on humour the idea that someone could be spending their life under the same roof as a cool-hearted serial killer is a quirky one. Then add to that the power that is put in Dorothy’s hands knowing that anyone she dislikes will be killed by Lewis and it does start to set up a story that could have gone in another direction.
What keeps this story of a 45 year-old kind-hearted script writer who takes in a drugged out early twenties man is the message it is putting out about Hollywood and the hollowness of tinsel town.
Success seems to bring misery, jealously, spiritual emptiness and a drink and drugs problem. Large houses, luxury cars and glamorous friends are all arranged and approved by the contract made with the studio. Real people and real lives don’t really have a place in this artificial world.
Amongst all of this sits Dorothy who is considering starting a relationship with Paul. She has been married before but is a confident and attractive woman who likes her independence. Part of that independence is taking the decision to take home a young man that her and Paul knock down one evening. Dorothy offers Lewis her spare room and after a while a mainly silent but powerful relationship develops. It is neither sexual or parental but based around something more idealistic.
Lewis bumps off Dorothy’s alcoholic ex-husband, the dead man’s second wife and a very aggressive studio boss before Dorothy discovers his secret. Once she knows she is filled with terror and eventually to escape she marries Paul and flees on honeymoon to the continent. In the meantime Lewis has been nominated for an Oscar and has all the trimmings of success.
But when Dorothy returns and is given the tour of Lewis’s home she leaves only to find the young star whimpering at the car window begging to be taken back to her home. Paul seems to understand that they will never be rid of Lewis but with Dorothy as his wife he appears to be prepared to allow the threesome to exist under the same roof.
Quiet what Dorothy – who is the heart-keeper of not just Lewis but Paul – will do is left to your imagination because at that point the book ends.
What is similar to something like Bonjour Tristesse is the sense of a love triangle, fast cars that lose their brakes and crash with fatal consequences and the younger of the three main characters being the most emotionally intense.
An odd book that you certainly won’t forget.
Version read – penguin paperback
book review – The Heart-Keeper
The more you think about this short book from Francoise Sagan the more you feel it has to be categorised as a black comedy.
The reason is that although it is short on humour the idea that someone could be spending their life under the same roof as a cool-hearted serial killer is a quirky one. Then add to that the power that is put in Dorothy’s hands knowing that anyone she dislikes will be killed by Lewis and it does start to set up a story that could have gone in another direction.
What keeps this story of a 45 year-old kind-hearted script writer who takes in a drugged out early twenties man is the message it is putting out about Hollywood and the hollowness of tinsel town.
Success seems to bring misery, jealously, spiritual emptiness and a drink and drugs problem. Large houses, luxury cars and glamorous friends are all arranged and approved by the contract made with the studio. Real people and real lives don’t really have a place in this artificial world.
Amongst all of this sits Dorothy who is considering starting a relationship with Paul. She has been married before but is a confident and attractive woman who likes her independence. Part of that independence is taking the decision to take home a young man that her and Paul knock down one evening. Dorothy offers Lewis her spare room and after a while a mainly silent but powerful relationship develops. It is neither sexual or parental but based around something more idealistic.
Lewis bumps off Dorothy’s alcoholic ex-husband, the dead man’s second wife and a very aggressive studio boss before Dorothy discovers his secret. Once she knows she is filled with terror and eventually to escape she marries Paul and flees on honeymoon to the continent. In the meantime Lewis has been nominated for an Oscar and has all the trimmings of success.
But when Dorothy returns and is given the tour of Lewis’s home she leaves only to find the young star whimpering at the car window begging to be taken back to her home. Paul seems to understand that they will never be rid of Lewis but with Dorothy as his wife he appears to be prepared to allow the threesome to exist under the same roof.
Quiet what Dorothy – who is the heart-keeper of not just Lewis but Paul – will do is left to your imagination because at that point the book ends.
What is similar to something like Bonjour Tristesse is the sense of a love triangle, fast cars that lose their brakes and crash with fatal consequences and the younger of the three main characters being the most emotionally intense.
An odd book that you certainly won’t forget.
Version read – penguin paperback
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper
There are just a few pages left, but enough for Lewis to commit another murder, and declare his love for Dorothy. He shoots the director of his film with a gun that is meant to be unloaded and as a result gets away with the crime. But his cold-hearted attitude pushes Dorothy over the edge.
Her only real option is to get away from home and Lewis and so she marries Paul and spends six months on honeymoon. When she returns Lewis has won an Oscar and is installed in a huge house by the studio. He meets Dorothy and Paul and clings onto them as they are given a tour of the house. As they leave he runs out and begs to come back with them. The final scene has Paul acknowledging that Lewis is going to be with them for life.
Lewis, with his cold-hearted nature, is a living embodiment of the callous nature of the world of Hollywood where success buys love and wealth and failure leads to alcoholism, bitterness and ultimately obscurity and death.
“It was evident that he had lost his self-control. Hollywood had destroyed him, too, at last – Hollywood and alcohol.”
A review will follow soon…
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper
There are just a few pages left, but enough for Lewis to commit another murder, and declare his love for Dorothy. He shoots the director of his film with a gun that is meant to be unloaded and as a result gets away with the crime. But his cold-hearted attitude pushes Dorothy over the edge.
Her only real option is to get away from home and Lewis and so she marries Paul and spends six months on honeymoon. When she returns Lewis has won an Oscar and is installed in a huge house by the studio. He meets Dorothy and Paul and clings onto them as they are given a tour of the house. As they leave he runs out and begs to come back with them. The final scene has Paul acknowledging that Lewis is going to be with them for life.
Lewis, with his cold-hearted nature, is a living embodiment of the callous nature of the world of Hollywood where success buys love and wealth and failure leads to alcoholism, bitterness and ultimately obscurity and death.
“It was evident that he had lost his self-control. Hollywood had destroyed him, too, at last – Hollywood and alcohol.”
A review will follow soon…
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper
There is always something special about the moment when a reader has been ahead of the plot and then catches up. What happens next is when the ability of the storyteller really comes through. If it becomes easy to guess then to some degree the story has failed but equally go too far from reality and it becomes implausible.
Sagan has now reached that moment. It has become clear that Lewis is killing anyone who tries to insult or hurt Dorothy. Finally the penny drops and she confronts him with the truth and he admits it easily enough. But then she is in a dilemma because she realises the power she has over life and death – is she dislikes someone then Lewis will happily kill them for her.
She keeps it secret to herself but you wonder just how lone she can go on living in the shadow of the strange young man who is a cold-hearted killer.
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper
There is always something special about the moment when a reader has been ahead of the plot and then catches up. What happens next is when the ability of the storyteller really comes through. If it becomes easy to guess then to some degree the story has failed but equally go too far from reality and it becomes implausible.
Sagan has now reached that moment. It has become clear that Lewis is killing anyone who tries to insult or hurt Dorothy. Finally the penny drops and she confronts him with the truth and he admits it easily enough. But then she is in a dilemma because she realises the power she has over life and death – is she dislikes someone then Lewis will happily kill them for her.
She keeps it secret to herself but you wonder just how lone she can go on living in the shadow of the strange young man who is a cold-hearted killer.
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper
The relationship between Dorothy and Lewis is largely left unsaid but there are a few facts that point at least to the emotions that the young man is experiencing. For a start despite getting a job as an actor he remains as a lodger in her home. Then there are the jealous looks he throws her way when she goes out with her boyfriend Paul. Finally, there is the way he tries to buy her with gifts like a Rolls Royce.
But what starts to emerge as a possible problem is the decision by Lewis to go and sign for a Hollywood big shot. That night Lewis goes out and does not return and the same big shot producer he has signed for turns up dead in a gay brothel. Dorothy doesn’t suspect him for a second but the reader does.
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper
The relationship between Dorothy and Lewis is largely left unsaid but there are a few facts that point at least to the emotions that the young man is experiencing. For a start despite getting a job as an actor he remains as a lodger in her home. Then there are the jealous looks he throws her way when she goes out with her boyfriend Paul. Finally, there is the way he tries to buy her with gifts like a Rolls Royce.
But what starts to emerge as a possible problem is the decision by Lewis to go and sign for a Hollywood big shot. That night Lewis goes out and does not return and the same big shot producer he has signed for turns up dead in a gay brothel. Dorothy doesn’t suspect him for a second but the reader does.
More tomorrow…
Lunchtime read: The Heart-Keeper – post II
It is quite good reading Wise Children and The Heart-Keeper at the same time because they both describe the world of Hollywood. In the case of Sagan it is the world of the screen writer Dorothy but the sense of a hollow world tinged with insincerity comes across in both books.
For Dorothy it is the moment when she is told that her second husband Frank has died. The man, who she still felt very fondly for, had spiralled into alcoholism after their marriage ended and he was supported by Dorothy even after they split.
She turns for sympathy to her house guest Lewis rather than her current boyfriend Paul. He decides that he wants to carry on living with her but wants to get a job so she sets up a screen test and a career in the movies beckons for the brooding young artist.
More tomorrow…
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