The unfinished manuscript for this novel by celebrated French writer, Françoise Sagan, was discovered after her death. The ending, then, is unavoidably abrupt. The writing is unmistakably Sagan; vivid, elaborate and quite racy for its time. At times, the flowery language is a bit too much and distracts from the story being told.

Thank you NetGalley and Amazon Crossing for accepting my request to read and review The Four Corners of the Heart, An Unfinished Novel.

Confused best describes my reading experience. There were times when the writing drew me in, almost hypnotizing. Then suddenly I was confused wondering where the story was going. More times than not, I couldn't tell myself or someone else what the book was about.

This just wasn't for me.

The Four Corners of the Heart: An Unfinished Novel by Françoise Sagan

From the author or Bonjour Tristesse and translated by Sophie R. Lewis. The Four Corners of the Heart is Sagan's unfinished novel, found by her son Denis Westhoff after her death in 2004 – now available in English.

📚 About the book:
Young and glamorous Marie-Laure never expected her husband to survive a devastating car accident that left him in a fragile mental and physical condition. But three years later, Ludovic Cresson returns home to the family estate and finds himself in the throes of a failing marriage.

Overseeing this tense dynamic is Henri, the patriarch, who wants to see his son recover but detests various members of his own family. But when Marie-Laure’s mother visits the estate, the family equilibrium falters spectacularly. As Ludovic’s virility returns, he cannot resist the charms of his mother-in-law―and neither can his father.


💭 Some Thoughts:
I first read Sagan in my late teens and completely fell in love. Her subject matter is often the bourgeoisie and their strange and sometimes comedic stumbles. The characters in four corners of the heart tread a line of being genuinely insufferable and entertaining. It's in many ways a farce, a lot of characters disconnected from "normal" behaviour and acting on impulses afforded to the wealthy. Ludovic’s mother in law for example, seems to exhibit no loyalty to her daughter and is instead far more open-hearted to her son-in-law.

The story ends without resolution as Sagan never finished it and no other author was asked to. While I do understand and commend this decision is would have been interesting (perhaps as a postscript) to have an example of how it might have ended.

Overall it transported me into a world separate from anything like present reality. Sagan manages to insert her own striking insights on what it is to live and love into what is in many ways a pompous parade of emotionally inept rich people.

🤔 Would I Recommend?
This book is an acquired taste. If you like Sagan's other work / French literature / Noel Coward (less comic) / Hot summers where people sit around fancying each other this book could well be for you!

💫 Rating:
⭐⭐⭐.5

Thank you Netgalley and Amazon Crossing for this ARC

A character driven novel (or novella, really) that is mostly notable because it is an unfinished work by Sagan. Ludocvic finds himself at the center of a family storm when he returns home after suffering an injury. Everyone has their issues, everyone has their perspective. Would this have been published if it was not Sagan? Probably. Would it have been a better book if she had finished and polished it? Surely, Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Worth a read for her fans and fans of literary fiction.

The Four Corners of the Heart An Unfinished Novel, Françoise Sagan, Amazon Crossing 2023.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

How I wish that I had originally known Françoise Sagan’s work through this clever, comic, sensitive and thoughtful novel rather than the one with which I understood her work until now. Bonjour Tristesse was, to me, a self-absorbed work which left me with a feeling of antipathy and distress that I carried over to my much later reading of Ian McEwan’s Atonement. The Four Corners of the Heart, unfinished though it is, is such a satisfying read, with enough information to speculate about if you want a resolution. If this is not your only reason for reading a book, and I acknowledge it is not mine, this novel is something to be savoured, with its complex characters, edifying and unedifying moments, comedy and fully developed writing.

Ludovic Cresson survives a car accident, and begins to survive a more serious situation, his family’s belief that he is now mentally incapacitated. He has been ‘cared’ for in institutions, and, with this understanding of his abilities, he returns to his family. The chief mourners of his past capabilities and current fragile state are his glamorous wife, Marie-Laure, and his father, the patriarch, Henri. Henri is unimpressed by the remainder of his family and evinces concern for Ludovic’s seemingly fragile health and mental capacity. However, Ludovic’s fragility is based on his family’s expectations and misunderstanding. They are unable to see past their perceptions to the realities of the accident and its consequences. Their complicity in Ludovic’s treatment since the accident is perhaps innocent, but nevertheless impacts on their current relationships and the new connection made with Marie-Laure’s mother. These become apparent as the novel progresses, although never fully explained.

Ludovic is a party to the misconceptions about his abilities, perhaps because of his treatment since the accident or perhaps because of some event in his past. This is a question that is not answered, but drawing upon the information available is a worthwhile study. For example, it is abundantly clear that Ludovic has married unwisely, that he is prepared to abandon his marriage vows, and is able to enter an alliance that seems bound to result in a dramatic conclusion. We can only speculate what this might be!

Marie-Laure’s mother, Fanny Crawley, visits the estate, and this changes the dynamic of the family – but in ways that are not immediately readily apparent. Tellingly, the family equilibrium eventually falters spectacularly. As Ludovic’s virility returns, because of his visit to a prostitute? mother-in-law’s charms? her capacity for truth telling about the accident? the moderation of the impact of his wife’s rejection by this new woman who clearly admires him? Henri is also enamoured, and decides he should ignore his wife, Sandra, in his pursuit of a more interesting alliance. Sandra is at times a shadowy character, determined upon maintaining her concern with duty, but little else. Nevertheless, she makes for some comic moments, and one wonders what impact she might have had on the resolution of a completed novel. Her brother, Phillipe is an unworthy character – perhaps Sandra might have demonstrated some family likeness in the finished novel?

Behind all the family machinations, love affairs, rejections, and changing relationships broods the dreadful architecture of the family home. The novel begins with this looming above the young married couple, who look at their feet rather than each other, and possibly in preference to surveying their home. With the mixture of comedy, pathos and characterisation the novel begins so well. It is unfortunate that we are not to know the ending, but The Four Corners of the Heart is an excellent read regardless.

A classic novel which is character driven and shows the absurdities of human nature. It's a shame that it wasn't finished really. But even though it ended abruptly I was surprised how happy I felt for reading this beautiful piece of literature. I haven't read any of her work till date and was pleasantly surprised as to how enjoyable this book was. Definitely going to take up her most popular one 'Bonjour Tristesse' soon.

Françoise Sagan (1935-2004) never finished "The Four Corners of the Heart" but what we have here is such a treat that I don't regret reading it or not having an authoritative ending. Sagan creates such acerbic and delicious dialogue that I spent most of my time highlighting phrases that amused me in their savagery.

The story is about a group of people who meet at an estate as the patriarch plans for a large dinner party. Henri and Sandra are unhappy; his son Ludovic and his wife Marie-Laure are miserable after Ludovic's attention and hospitalisation. Sandra's brother, Philippe and Marie-Laure's mother round out the cast of characters, The book has a very Renoir's "Rules of The Game" vibe to it as these malcontents seek to find meaning in being as miserable to themselves as they are to other people.

Sagan makes these characters such delightful egotistical monsters because she does not overplay their monstrousness. She simply allows them to speak for themselves--a prime example is a confrontation on the stairs between Marie-Laure and Ludovic where Marie-Lure spells out why they will not be sharing a bed that evening. There's also a conversation between Henri and Madame Hamel (a local madam) about Henri's love life that shows Henri to be a master of egotism.

The novel is relatively short, but I did not feel cheated once I got to the abrupt ending, but the novel had been so good. I only felt wistful at what could have been if Sagan had been able to finish the novel before her death. Her son, Denis Westhoff writer an afterword to explain how the manuscript was found, and what it means to him to be able to appreciate and care for her mother's estate.

#TheFourCornersoftheHeart #NetGalley

When Françoise Sagan died in 2004, she left behind a literary oeuvre to make any writer envious—and with her completed and much loved works, she left also "The Four Corners of the Heart," now making its English debut in all its rough glory.

Perhaps best described as a cross between a soap opera and a scathing indictment of the bourgeoisie (and oh, how it delights me to be able to use the phrase "a scathing indictment of the bourgeoisie" with a complete lack of irony), "The Four Corners of the Heart" follows a patched-together household through a most unusual time in their lives: the prodigal son has just returned from a long stint in hospital that he was not expected to survive; his wife has rejected him; his father is determined that the son get adequate attention from prostitutes if no one else; and the son has transferred his affections to the only person to treat him as a functioning human in the wake of his accident—his wife's mother. Chaos, predictably, ensues.

I read "Bonjour Tristesse" immediately before "The Four Corners of the Heart," because it seemed unfair to know Sagan only by her last, unfinished work rather than by her celebrated first novel. Her microfocus on the follies of a family bring to mind Jane Austen, of all people, although only if Austen had written her books in twentieth-century France and with a great deal more bed-hopping. In "Four Corners," we Sagan's voice is clear as a bell: in the character studies, in the sardonic eye cast upon the rambling house (full, naturally, of conflicting styles, uniform only in their poor taste), in the great rise toward the climax—

And yet it is (as advertised) an unfinished novel: not entirely unedited, as the author's son (who now manages her estate) notes in the afterword, but unfinished. It's hard to know how to rate it, because there are so many unknowns left in the book. We'll never know just where Sagan would have gone with this (or how different her own edits might have been), but I hope it's a success—for many reasons, but also because if it's a big enough success then perhaps someday the publisher and estate will collaborate with, say, three contemporary authors and publish an edition of this with three different endings.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a free review copy through NetGalley.

Wow! What an amazing book!!
Would love to read more from the author.
Thankyou netgalley for the Arc!

I loved the characters and the story! I loved the exploration of all of the character's characterization. Despite being an unfinished novel, I love what we do have here.

I have decided to give this book 3.5 stars ,i adored the aesthetics of the four corners of the heart and would hope to read similar books to it in the future however the characters were excessively annoying which ruined moments of this book.I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the work of Sagan but don't expect too much