Kathleen's Reviews > Incidental Music: Stories

I first discovered Francoise Sagan decades ago, walking past the library shelves and coming upon her small, translated novels. They were light yet so true. I don’t even remember now which ones I’ve read--rather than reading a story, I was just reading Sagan. I was glad to discover I still find her prose so very comforting. She writes with a soothing simplicity which I found again in these stories.

Sagan has this ability to take superficial situations and make them somehow meaningful, revealing, universal. She turns things in her capable hands, so we can look at them from different angles.

Maybe best I liked the fun, simply ironic stories here, like “The Cat and the Casino” with its revenge plot twist, and “The Exchange”--a romp where the characters pull off unexpected tricks on each other, and the exploration of who’s leaving who in “A Question of Timing.” But then there are the ones that offer surprisingly profound insights, like the title story’s view into a troubled marriage, and the almost novelistic life-changing tragedy in “A Country Outing.” They’re all good.

If you’re looking for something gently literary, try Francois Sagan. I have a goal now to read all of her books, and am pretty sure I’ll enjoy every one.