Customer Reviews

All Said and Done

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All Said and Done by Simone de Beauvoir is the final of five volumes of de Beauvoirs autobiography, and is different from those that precede it, which basically progress on a chronological basis. This book is arranged thematically, and de Beauvoir picks up a theme or area of her life, addresses it for the 10 years that the book focuses on, 1962 to 1972. Early in the volume, she addresses books shes read, movies, theater productions, etc. A particularly interesting chapter focuses on the deaths of some of the people she has known, including Sartres mother and de Beauvoirs close friend, Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti. While these sections have interesting moments, the brief time she spends on each book, movie, or production and the shortness of the sections isnt a very engaging read. The discussion is really a gloss, and feels a little obligatory on de Beauvoirs part.
The book really picks up in pace and interest when de Beauvoir moves on to address the travels shes taken in these ten years toward the end of her life (she died in 1986). She first goes through trips she made for fun, with Sartre or on her own. Then she addresses trips they took for primarily political reasons, to Egypt, to Israel, to Russia, Estonia, etc. Shes always a very engaging travel writer as she has a deep knowledge of the places shes traveling, and, often  especially on the political trips  she and Sartre are given guides and access to things one might not be able to see on ones own.
Toward the end of the book, she writes about her feelings about the Vietnam War, going into some detail about two tribunals that worldwide intelligentsia held to try the United States for war crimes in Vietnam, particularly for genocide (the United States was found guilty). De Beauvoir was very against Frances actions in Algeria, and she now turned her attention toward what she felt was a violation of the rights of the Vietnamese for self-determination to make a statement with her colleagues on their political situation.
This book was illuminating of de Beauvoirs character in a rather new way. Toward the end, she emerged to me as something of an ideologue, rather than a woman who was committed to certain principles that she addressed issue by issue. When the students took over the Sorbonne in the late 1960s, she supported their actions because it was to overthrow the status quo; the students wanted more control of their studies, they wanted to abolish the class system between students and faculty and they didnt want to have to accept professors edicts. She seems, from this book, to believe that any system that is very long held should be overthrown on that point alone. She was disappointed when she and other editors at Les Temps moderne offered the rebellious students an opportunity to write for their political review and the student leaders turned them down because their publication had become an institution (it was too long standing). She does not comment on this.
Also in the late 1960s, de Beauvoir and Sartre officially broke with the Soviet Union, which they had supported as part of the noncommunist left for some time, because of its actions in Czechoslovakia. While de Beauvoir constantly ridiculed the United States for its imperialism, up until this time, even after visiting Estonia and Lithuania after they were controlled by the U.S.S.R., she did not criticize the Soviet government. But after the Prague Spring was crushed, she and Sartre had to admit that they were not pleased with the thought-police actions of the Soviets and their interpretation of the communist party. She also laments that Marx is so disregarded in the U.S.S.R. by the time of this volume, that there is no longer any one there who can speak with authority on Marxist theory or philosophy.
I really enjoyed this volume, for its differences with its sister volumes, and for what it reveals about de Beauvoir. I recommend it, and think it could certainly stand on its own.