Bonjour Tristesse

Title: Bonjour Tristesse
Author: impulse.
Type: Original Fiction
Genre: Tragedy, Romance, Drama
Rating: R

How does that song go? “Breaking up is hard to do?" Truer words have never been spoken. Break-ups are always hard, no matter how long the relationship lasted, how awful it was from beginning to end, or how insignificant your significant other turned out to be. Even if the break-up was mutual, it is still somewhat painful. And any story you read, any perspective you have, the dumpee is always speaking. The mood is somber, the tone is dismal, and it’s all around heartwrenching. But what about the dumper? What kind of tone would that story have?

Enter Bonjour Tristesse, stage right. This story is told from the first person point-of-view of Maxwell, a young man who has just gotten through his first year in college. Maxwell dumped Tessa before he went away to school and now, nearly a year later, he’s back home and has run into his once-was girlfriend—only she is definitely not who she once was. Maxwell is the perfect antihero: he’s pitiless, sarcastic, uncaring and emotionally unresponsive to seeing Tessa. He, as far as the reader knows, harbors no guilt to the break-up and his apathy is palpable.

Tessa, on the other hand, is a character that any reader would want to hug. The mother or father figure inside of us all would just want to scoop her up and squeeze her until it hurts. Tessa is a naïve girl but not in the way one would guess. She isn’t clueless and beyond help or reason; rather, she’s an idealist and innocent, like a child. Though Maxwell seems unfazed by the break-up, Tessa has changed from it and it’s mostly physical. Hair - dyed and dirty. Body - skin and bone. It’s hard not to pity her.

impulse. has taken a rare storyline and created something beautiful from it. It’s different to see a male protagonist taking the lead in the story and it works. Another aspect of the story that really resonates with the reader is the pacing. This story takes its time to develop. In the story, as in real life, nothing unfolds and forms into a pretty picture that the reader so desperately craves. The mystery of the characters’ pasts and the ambiguity of where their story is headed creates a deep suspense that must be fulfilled, but in due time.

For now, I will wait patiently for impulse.’s updates, but just know that I am on the edge of my seat. Bonjour Tristesse, in all aspects, is beautiful, and one that is worth the time and the wait. I applaud impulse. for creating such a gorgeous story.