emily1602 's review for:

Strait Is the Gate (La Porte Etroite) by André Gide

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A couple of people who make themselves miserable for pretty much no reason. Which was relatable, actually. But I’m probably being too simplistic: it was more about longing and happiness. Alissa remains in longing and dies unfulfilled, Juliette achieves her longing and grows up to be, as the book has it, fat and annoying. Happiness does not exist. Longing is the closest you will get to it, when you have the illusion that there is something close before you that will make you happy. Or, if happiness does exist, there are only brief chances for it. You should grab them as soon as you can. (Though that will make you a bad person, like Alissa’s mom) Alissa and Jerome have some idea of the futility happiness, though they explain it to themselves in religious terms, rather than the ones I used.
Started this while waiting for a flight, finished it very jet lagged.