"Aimez-Vous Brahms?"

Aimez-vous Brahms is a novel by Françoise Sagan, first published in 1959. It was published in the USA in 1960, and was made into a film under the title Goodbye Againin 1961 starring Ingrid Bergman and Anthony Perkins. It was also adapted (probably unofficially) as a Hindi film called Jahan Tum Le Chalo in 1999.
The plot concerns a middle-aged woman who leaves her long-standing lover for a relationship with a younger man.
...
Once more the kaleidescope of Francoise Sagan's perceptions is given a twist and is found to have a limited amount of variations on its theme. Here is A Certain Smile, Bonjour Tristesse, Those Without Shadows slightly readjusted but replete with the familiar ingredients. For in this story of a thirty-nine year old French career woman, her love for a habitual bachelor and her affair with a twenty-five-year-old man, the whole genre-perfected by Colette and not very much affected by Francoise Sagan- is once more revealed. Paule loves Roger, but he is too irresponsible to give her the security even she requires. Simon, handsome and effete, loves Paule, but, alas Paule loves Roger and habit. As for Brahms, Paule is not too sure how much she loves Brahms, but Simon's question as to her musical preference shatters her into the realization that she has been numbed by her chronic affection for Roger and she decides to give Brahms and her young throng a try. This she does in this slight, tiresome rehearsal of love, boredom, and frustration under the roofs of Paris.
At the heart of this story, just like Francoise Sagan’s other well known work Bonjour Tristesse, is a tale the evolves around the emotion of love. In Bonjour... it was about the love of a daughter for a father and of a life together. In Aimes-vous Brahms… it is about the love, which is almost abusive in its one sidedness between two old lovers that has no room for the love of a younger man.

Plot summary
Thirty nine year old Paule is a designer in Paris that has been stuck in a relationship with a haulage businessman Roger for six years. In that time he has had numerous affairs with other women while expecting her to remain loyal. They are both stuck in a rut that comes under pressure with the introduction of Simon a 25 year old lawyer who is the son of one of Paule’s clients. He becomes besotted with Paule and offers her all the things that Roger doesn’t and he breaks up their relationship but the irony is that Paule is unhappy with his love and ends up by dropping Simon and returning to Roger.

Is it well written?
It is written very subtly because a great deal of the big themes about love linger with you and become clear afterwards. On one level there is the straightforward story about the chase, the affair and the failure but on another there is something operating on another level about the nature of love. So you end up questioning what it is about the love that Simon offers that is so unattractive to Paule and why she returns to the almost abusive love that Roger offers? Is it a lack of confidence? Something to do with age – something that dominates the book? It is because of the ability to ask those questions this is such a good read.

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