Gigi and The Cat by Collette

Six of our group enjoyed discussing these two short stories by Collette.

Coincidentally a film about Collette’s life was recently released and one of our group had found the time to go and see it and shared the story with us. This insight really helped us to gain an appreciation of the author. It seems that the story of Gigi, a girl of around 15 years old, has some parallels with Collette’s own life.

Gigi is being brought up by three single women (mother, grandmother and aunt – all of whom had lived or were living proudly hedonistic lifestyles). Gigi was being prepared for a career as a courtesan which required dignified etiquette to attract wealthy, powerful, or influential lovers. We were saddened by the intentions of the older women, and also the restrictions they placed on Gigi’s life. The story was, however a good social insight and even funny in places! Well-read members of our group felt the humour was similar to that in The Importance of Being Earnest (Comedy of Errors) by Oscar Wilde).

The story itself is hard to read, it didn’t flow and we suspect it was not as well translated as it could have been.

The second story - The Cat - was more readable than Gigi but not a pleasant read. It was easier than Gigi, to get involved in the story and it flowed better. The characters however are shallow and spoiled with, according to one of our group, ‘quite nauseating’ behaviours! The comings and goings of a ‘mummy’s boy’ and his fiancé were entertaining and one particular scene (on the balcony) was quite exceptional.

So, surprisingly, Ashendon Book Group read and discussed stories written by one of the most revered of French writers and didn’t really enjoy the experience.

We reflected on this for a while and our collective knowledge of other works by Collette was shared. We concluded that, at some time in the future, we should give Claudine (a series of 4 books) a try (either as independent readers or as a group).

But for now, here’s something different: our next read will be Mythos by Stephen Fry and we will meet on Thursday 23rd May at 8pm in The Hundred.

As we have a little longer than usual before our next get together, some of us will also read The Wisdom of Little Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan.