Reviews

A dense memoir, this follows Simone de Beauvoir from her earliest memories through her time spent at university during her 20s. De Beauvoir describes her childhood: the rigidity of her parents' rules for life, but the affection she feels for them; growing up during the first world war; the solace she finds in nature; her fascination with education and learning. De Beauvoir grows up in an upper-middle class household, though the family frequently looses money, and they struggle to make ends meet. She attends a convent school: her father is an atheist but her mother is fiercely religious. Her parents are ill-matched, and de Beauvoir struggles to make sense of their relationship as she tries to navigate that contradictions and hypocrisies of her upbringing and understand why some things are "done" and some are "not done". Through these descriptions of de Beauvoir's early emotional struggles, we see the beginnings of her interest in philosophy and her gradual development as a great thinker and writer. The memoir also explores her friendships: how desperately she tries to find companions who share her preoccupations with the meaning of existence and who do not believe in God, and how she is terrified of marrying a man who will not understand her. In particular, her relationship with her childhood friend, the fiercely intelligent Zaza, is noteworthy. De Beauvoir escapes from the rigid roles of a middle-class family and forges her own path, but Zaza is trapped by her own religious faith and her inability to disobey her mother. Through Zaza's struggle, we witness de Beauvoir's own freedom of thought and indomitable spirit.

I found this book too lengthy, and felt at times that de Beauvoir was repeating her long explorations of her thoughts and philosophical struggles. Despite this, it is definitely worth reading.

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