The last of chéri5/22/2023 ![]() At least one or the other wasn't happy with the way things felt in comparison to how they remembered their relationship to be. The theme that stuck out to me the most in both books is best expressed by this John Steinbeck quote, "You can't go home again because home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory." In both books, Chéri and Léa try to rekindle a relationship that they remember to be great and both times they come to the conclusion that it wasn't how they remembered it - it wasn't as great as it had been. They are once again reunited and things are so different than they had been before the war that Chéri can hardly believe this is the same Léa he had once loved. The Last of Chéri begins 6 years after the last time Chéri and Léa saw each other - during which World War I occurred and Chéri came home a war hero. Chéri and Edmée's marriage is still on the rocks and they are essentially living completely separate lives (although Edmée and Chéri's mother are quite close and reveling in the newfound freedom women of the suffragette movement.) Chéri is wandering aimlessly through life without any clear direction and still obsessing over his past relationship with Léa. Chéri opens with a scene of the eponymous young man playing with a pearl necklace in the boudoir of his lover, Léa, a wealthy courtesan 24 years his senior. ![]()
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