Les Belles Images by Beauvoir

Les Belles Images / Simone de Beauvoir; translated by Patrick O'Brien
Fontana, 1973, c1966.
154 p.

I picked this one up in a thrift store -- I mean, just LOOK at that 70s cover! Yikes!

But I hadn't read a novel by Simone de Beauvoir before -- somehow it hadn't really registered that she was also a novelist. This brief story about a woman who is working with images as an advertiser, and is also having a bit of an existential crisis about her own self-image, was worth reading. Despite this cover...

Laurence is married to Jean-Charles, and has two young daughters, Catherine and Louise. She works in a successful ad agency, she belongs to the wealthier class, and has a young lover on the side. All very French. She's also aware that the "Belles Images" that she works with serve to hide an empty, existential hollowness at the core of life.

"Belles Images" also references the place of women in this mid-60s French world. Laurence is assumed to have her job because of her husband; her mother Dominique is obsessed with feeling young and vital, having left Laurence's father for someone more rich and exciting. Catherine is getting to an age where she is starting to ask those existential questions like "why are people alive?" Laurence knows that to squelch those thoughts and send Catherine to a psychiatrist will just train her into the role of woman that Laurence herself is struggling with.

Jean-Charles can't see the problem and thinks it will be easier just to conform and get along with the way the world is going, though this progress that he sees leaves out the progress of women and gender equality, focusing only on the economic progress he experiences. Laurence sees the social lies that enable people to continue living in their bubbles, the role of advertising and media in keeping people anesthetized against the social unrest in America and in former French colonies that they see on the television screen, only to be replaced with commercials a minute later. All of this leads her to try to synthesize her experiences, to recover from the fissures in her understanding of life. But in the end, she only hopes that her children will have the chance that she glimpses might be possible for women, though "it's too late for her". The themes of this 1966 book are scarily still present; the role of women in public and private life still fraught with difficulty and struggle. After 50 years I'd have hoped that we'd move past some of Laurence's identified issues, but instead we've gone backwards in many ways. 

This was a really interesting read. The content, as noted, is still relevant - Laurence is a great character, always questioning and trying to find a way to live authentically. The style is also appealing. It's an existentialist novel with an actual readable plot, and the flowing style moves from first person to third person seamlessly, following Laurence's actions and thoughts equally. It feels natural once you adapt to it. It's a short novel with a lot to think about. I'm glad I discovered it.