La fin de Chéri [translated as The Last of Chéri] is the sequel novel to Chéri by Colette. I read the German translation, Chéris Ende, by Roseli and Saskia Bontjes van Beek.
Finished on: 3.6.2024
[Here’s my review of Chéri.]

Content Note: suicide

Plot:
It’s been years since Chéri and Léa broke up. Chéri fought in World War One, and has been struggling with a sense of aimlessness and pointlessness ever since his return. Gone is the time where Chéri’s wife Edmée adored her husband. Instead she has found a new role during the war and is still enjoying working as a nurse. With nothing else to occupy him, Chéri turns to his memories of Léa and their relationship. And then he hears that she is in town.

La fin de Chéri turns its attention away from Léa, and focuses entirely on Chéri. I have to admit that that switch wasn’t exactly to my liking, but it is still a very engaging novel.

Before diving into this sequel, I re-read Chéri and was again impressed by the character work that Colette does. Both Léa and Chéri are great characters, the former more likable than the latter, and both are characters of the kind we very rarely get to see or read about.

La fin maintains the high quality in the character work without a doubt. But I have to admit that I personally have a hard time standing Chéri. I can see his pain, and I am very sorry about it, but he also really gets on my nerves. With the first novel, we spend most time with Léa, and I adore Léa. But here, it’s all Chéri all the time, with Léa actually only making an appearance in one scene (and she is in her lane, she is thriving, and I still adore her, even if Chéri feels that she has completely let herself go). And it got a bit much for me.

Colette handles his character with a sharp, dissecting gaze and a warm thread of empathy, making his pain and his sense of loss of place in the world utterly transparent and felt. Reading the book from a therapist’s perspective, it is pretty much like a case study. But it’s not something I actually want to read for fun. For that, I’d stick to the first novel.

Summarizing: well done, but not that much for me.