La vie sauvage des femmes by Bénédicteb Brézillon (review)

Agathe leads a typical and charmed life: She is a successful business woman, is married, the mother of a young girl and boy, whom she takes to various after-school activities. She likes cooking, has a hard-working and understanding husband, and even gets to go to gallery openings. She is pre-menopausal and still has her sense of humor. So, what could go wrong? "Et toi, tu es qui?" (51). This simple sentence uttered transforms her life: "J'ai rencontré un homme. Le jour se lève avec une nouvelle couleur" (59). Agathe's friends are gossiping hypocrites, insecure and jealous, and fearful perfectionists; in other words, similar to our own. Brézillon peppers her novel with a rich and modern vocabulary, from descriptions of Agathe and the people in her life, to where she lives and works. As she is predominantly in publicity and marketing, her references are accurate. We have a protagonist in full mid-life crisis. The author's references to Grey's Anatomy (in full and accurate detail), Ko Samui, and Xanax help this reader to relate to Agathe. Even her visit to the salon to color her hair for her tryst with Julien M. becomes an investigatory experience, skimming the latest magazines for trends and scandals, and what is new in Botox. Girls' night out also offers the reader a view of how these forty-something-year-old women talk of sex, dating, sex, business, sex, flirting, all while drinking champagne and gnawing on various snacks with rich product/logo names. Finally comes the "j'ai trompé mon mari" (155). Life's boring routine is just that. The Xanax, champagne, interludes—nothing can stop time from aging us. Agathe does not see her life through rose-colored glasses. Even shopping for sexy lingerie is sheer torture for her. She does come to the realization that what she has done is futile and lowers her self-worth. To compensate, she decides to help someone less fortunate regain his esteem. Brézillon uses self-deprecation well. Her knowledge of today's market is limitless, but she falls a bit short for this reader. This is a story we have heard so many times. We are all tempted to see what the grass is like on the other side. We question our self-worth as we age. This is a good fluff piece, but there are no new insights. Toward the end of the novel, we do get the feeling that Agathe has begun to understand that chasing the rainbow does not bring us any closer to the pot of gold. She learns that, to truly survive in her couple, she will have to help reinvent it: "Je pleure sur cette vie sauvage que je dompte derrière mes cils et que j'étouffe dans des rêves d'ailleurs" (283). La vie sauvage des femmes is definitely a novel for today's women trying to balance home, work, and their own sense of value, but it is not original.