A review by msjoanna
The Last of Cheri by Colette

5.0

What amazed me about this book was the way that Lea managed to dominate my feelings about the book even though she only appears in one brief chapter and is only glimpsed through the eyes of Cheri. In the first book, Colette manages to describe with pitch-perfect text the emotions of doomed lovers and a woman facing the changes in her life as she ages. Here, we see the woman transformed from stylish and sexy courtesan to decidedly frumpy but brilliantly comfortable and happy middle/old age. I couldn't stand Cheri and am glad to see the last of him here as he mopes around moaning about how he's thirty (30!) and his youth and life is over and his marriage is pointless and all the rest. But the picture of Lea was so powerfully drawn that the book came together for me. I'm totally smitten with Colette. How had I totally missed this author before now?