For ["A Certain Smile"] the author of "Bonjour Tristesse" has chosen a theme closer to experience, less armored in adolescent dream, and consequently a good deal more familiar than that of her sensational success of two years ago. Again we are exploring the shifting territory that lies between the generations, again our protagonist is a young girl the same age as her creator. But Dominique, if less original than Cecile, the bad seed of "Bonjour Tristesse," is more believable. Her story is more of a novel and less of a tour de force.

As an indication of Mlle. Sagan's future. I find this heartening. "Bonjour Tristesse" was a precocious book. It stamped a pattern of impossible, though amusing, events upon reality in a teen-age dream of wickedness, seduction, sophistication and power—for Cecile controlled and manipulated the adults about her at will. Her story was pure wish-fulfillment, carried...