Force of Circumstance

1965 Penguin translation of 1963 autobiography
Simone de Beauvoir
Translated by Richard Howard
Force of Circumstance
Bought used for $3.50
Very worn paperback
C+

This is one of de Beauvoir's later autobiographies, covering from the Liberation of France to the then present.  So she writes about not only her other memoirs, but this one as well.  The oddest thing to me is how she sort of saw herself as old at 36, and definitely at 55.  She in fact lived till 1986, and her long-time partner, Jean-Paul Sartre, whose health she fretted over, lasted till 1980.

I originally got this book because I'd read but never owned her pioneering work The Second Sex.  I think I'd rather have reread that, and I'm not surprised I haven't touched this book in over 20 years.  It's not bad but I can't much relate to her life in post-war France, or to existentialism.  I most enjoyed her description of Brazil and was disappointed when we had to go back to France.  I kept disagreeing with her on Communism and on violence by "the oppressed."  I also found there to be a lot of name-dropping of people whom I've never heard of.  Her take on misanthropic elderly Colette is interesting though.

De Beauvoir seems to have been a mildly interesting person.  There are moments of wry humour.  (It's very much a British translation.)  But I found it an exhausting read, particularly all the political clashes, and I'll probably wait another 20 years to revisit.