Inseparable: A Novel

Living the beauty of Sylvie and Andree's (Simone and Zaza's) bond was a journey of self discovery. Each character, brilliantly brought to life, held a mirror up to me. The critiques of religion and the exploration of the meaning of freedom are important, but the critiques of myself the ideas inspired were truly scathing. Through her prose born from a beautifully tragic relationship de Beauvoir painted a picture of me that is as poignant as it is gut wrenching. I am each character. In some way Simone's words are inseparable to me. I'll reflect on this story for quite a while.

Inseparable, a heretofore unpublished novel by Simone de Beauvoir, is worth reading for Margaret Atwood’s introduction alone. There readers learn that de Beauvoir decided not to publish the book after the “great” Jean Paul Sartre dismissed its focus on the lives of young women as uninteresting and unworthy compared to existentialism’s significant themes. Sartre was wrong. The book IS indeed about the search for a raison d’être, among women living within the confines of religious, social, and intellectual expectations of post-WWI France. What transforms the book from didacticism into a moving novel is the story of the intense love the narrator Sylvie feels for her schoolmate Andrée, a lively rebel who is nevertheless bound by duty to her mother, social class, and God. The characters are barely disguised versions of de Beauvoir herself and her childhood friend Zaza. The novel captures the asexual passion that women carry for their girlfriends. Any woman who has been devastated by the end of such a relationship — whether from an irreparable rift, diverging lives, or death — will understand the enormity of the lingering fixation on the beloved and the pain of losing her. As a writer of historical fiction (see my Amazon author page www.amazon.com/author/asewovenwords), I admire how the picture of a particular place and time is balanced with universal portraits of unforgettable individuals. Just as Andrée (Zaza) stayed with Sylvie (Simone) for the rest of her life, so will the…

It is certainly not as well written as her later works. Sartre was right, it is inconsequential.