If there is any difference in merit between [Bonjour Tristesse and A Certain Smile], it lies in the plots. The action in A Certain Smile is more ordinary; there is less suspense, and the heroine drifts with the tide instead of manipulating events like a juvenile Iago. A Certain Smile is truer to life on the level of general probability. On the level of imaginative excitement and surprise, it is not quite the equal of its brilliant predecessor.

Miss Sagan is a born storyteller, however, and even with a rather commonplace plot on her hands she can compel interest to the end. Her heroine is giddily charming, a quality which doesn't appear at all in the straight narrative but is conveyed with great skill through dialogue alone. She is indolent, inquisitive, and quite without scruples…. This unremarkable girl remains interesting because, for all her candid description of her actions and feelings, she never really explains herself. This is reasonable. Dominique is as puzzled by Dominique as anybody. The question that keeps the simple plot rolling is whether Dominique's agreement to conduct a brief love affair, with no affection on either side, will hold, and the author juggles it until the final curtain with great deftness.

Miss Sagan is a technician of a high order, working with exceptional economy and elegance in the tradition of Colette and Benjamin Constant. If there is any cause for concern in A Certain Smile, it is the lack of a sign that the author has tried to expand her view, vary her methods, or explore more deeply in the minds of her characters. A Certain Smile is a bull's-eye, true enough, but on the same range and the same target.