Chocolates for Breakfast was originally released in 1956 when Pamela Moore was just eighteen. It was pitched and marketed as the "American Bonjour Tristesse" which had been released two years earlier and was a sensation. However, unlike Bonjour Tristesse which remained popular, Chocolates for Breakfast went out of print in 1967 and only reappeared in the market thanks to the Harper Collins Perennial re-issue in 2013.
The novel is a coming-of-age story centred around the (initially) 15 year-old Courtney Farrell, a privileged but confused young girl. The first half of the novel takes place at her boarding school and in LA where her mother, a film actress, lives. The second half of the novel is set in New York. It is easy to see why Moore's book is so heavily compared to Sagan's; both stories are about a young girl who is emotionally and some-what socially troubled as she tries to grow into the woman that she wants to be. That is one of the things that actually stuck out to me while I read the book, Courtney's struggle to become the type of woman that she envisages, wants and desires to be. She is very intentional in her actions and the choices that she makes. This, I think, is actually refreshing for such a young female character; she struggles between her naive misunderstanding of the world while pushing herself to become her "ideal" self. I think that this is something that most girls go through but I don't ever remember a novel that addresses this particular struggle as well as Moore's does. Because of this, even though the story is very much about the privileged class, it is quite a universal story.
In an interview about the the book Moore herself noted that she wanted to explore the drives of the self-destructive generation that Courtney belongs to. This is very much the undercurrent that runs beneath the story. There are depictions of mental illness, alcoholism, and abuse (if these are sensitive subjects for you then I would tread carefully. It is also worth noting that several times characters use derogatory terms for homosexuals which is jarring and offensive). Although Moore never really explicitly deals with or explains why certain characters have the failings that they do she still manages to explore the characters in a though-provoking way. She tends to point to the previous generation for the failings of the youth and for me that brings to mind the Second World War and the fall-out from that (and also the positive economic growth that the US saw in the 1950s) as one possible root cause that Moore is driving at.
I really enjoyed this book. At times it is an over-the-top and juicy gossip novel but then it also has a real grounding and emotional impact. When I finished the book I just sat staring into space, thinking about it for a good twenty minutes and it has been almost constantly on my mind ever since. Then end is perhaps a bit over-wrought and not very deftly dealt with but I definitely recommend the book as a whole, especially if you are fond of female-driven coming-of-age stories.
Have you read Chocolates for Breakfast? What did you think? Do you have any recommendations for other novels like this? Feel free to let me know in the comments!
First Published: 1956
Published By: Rhinehart (original). Re-issue by Harper Collins Perennial (pictured above)
Rating: 4/5
Goodreads
Book Depository
Lots of love,
xoxo
*This post was not sponsored, all opinions are my own. Above image is not mine, sourced from here.
No comments:
Post a Comment