The Inseparables: The Story of Friendship
The Inseparables: The Story of Friendship
I read Simone de Beauvoir's 'The Second Sex' when I was 18. As a girl with a rebellious and questioning nature, growing up in a country where women still don't have their basic rights, this book became my best companion to understand my place in society. I hadn't read anything else from her until recently.
Listening to 'The Inseparables' on my way to work, I thought, "This story is truly about a feminist in her early life!" It's a story of her friendship that shaped her.
The Inseparables revisits de Beauvoir's friendship with Élisabeth Lacoin, nicknamed Zaza, which began when they were nine years old.
The novella centres on Sylvie's (Simone) enthrallment with Andrée (Zaza), a new arrival at their school. Their intense bond thrives on intellectual discussions, shared dreams of defying societal expectations, and a world they build for themselves.
As the girls mature, the pressures of a rigid society threaten their connection. Sylvie, the narrator, grapples with her own ambitions and Andrée's increasingly erratic behaviour. The story explores themes of female friendship, intellectual awakening, and the struggle for independence in a constraining world.
The bond between Sylvie and Andrée feels genuine and complex. Their intellectual sparring, vulnerabilities, and the bittersweet undercurrent of their connection are beautifully rendered.
The relationship between them is somehow kind of innocent love, which is more from Sylvie’s side. She adores Andree, the emotion that is common with teenage girls.
Reading about their relationship made me remember my friendship with my best friend. The way I was inspired by her, my yearning to be independent like her, our struggles, and the way we seemed inseparable, but finally, each of us found different paths, and we eventually became separable.
What struck me about this novella was how it helped me understand how Simone de Beauvoir's philosophical views on gender and existentialism were shaped. The conversations between them for that time is amazing, read this part:
“They teach you in catechism to respect your body. So selling your body in marriage must be as bad as selling it on the street,” Andrée says.
And what surprised me was that despite the story's time period, it seems timeless to me. The novel's exploration of female ambition, societal constraints, and the complexities of friendship still resonate with me.
After finishing this novella, I feel I need to re-read 'The Second Sex.' I believe our perceptions of books can differ over time, and I'm eager to see how my present self will react to this book!
I'm also planning to read her memoir.
Have you read any of her books?
If you liked this review, press ❤️ and share it with your friends!