One of the best memoirs I've read.

Acá descubrimos al hombre detrás del mito, con sus virtudes y defectos, su valentía y su insensatez. Y a la muer que, abnegada, permaneció en su vida hasta el último momento. Por momentos triste, por momentos, romántico, el libro es el reflejo de una relación intensa.

Lovely one. The truth about the little prince author..a lovely book. =)

If you have read the "The Little Prince' by Antoine de Saint-Exupery and felt sorry for the boy who pined for his Rose, you are in for a rude shock. As the title suggests, this is the story of 'The Rose' as told by her.

Twice widowed Consuelo meets the aviator Antoine in Buenos Aires and before she can even think of what is happening, gets caught up in the whirl wind world of romance and subsequent marriage to him. The story takes us through their tumultuous lives from Paris to Casablanca, back to Paris , then to her home in El Salvador and finally to New York.

Antoine comes across as totally self centered and selfish, looking only at what he could get out of the relationship. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that but for Consuelo, most of his much acclaimed literary works may not have seen the light of the day or even been completed. One moment he treats her as though she is the biggest treasure that he has come across, the next as if her very presence would poison him. The callous nature in which he carries on his various affairs right front of her is shocking, to say the least. But, the very moment he gets even an inkling of her intention to leave him, the jealous serpent in him raises itself. By fair means and foul, he ensures that Consuelo doesn't leave him.

Consuelo herself seem to be at a complete loss as far as her beloved Tonio is considered. She knows he is treating her worse than a doormat, but is ready to fly back to him at the slightest hint. She is literally banished from his life several times, left stranded penniless and home less in strange towns and even goes through multiple nervous break downs. At the end of it all , she is back at his door step , trying to bring some order into his completely disarrayed life. Is it some sort of heroinism, I wonder, that she thinks she alone is capable to tame such a wild and gifted heart? The essence of their life together is brought out in her words,

"My God, being the wife of a pilot is a whole career, but being the wife of a writer is a religious vocation!"

What Antoine looks for in his wife is also clear as he leaves her before his final flight,

"I could almost thank heaven for giving me a treasure to leave behind: my house, my books, my dog. You will keep them for me."

The book reinforces some questions that I have always had. Is promiscuity a pre-requisite for genius and an artistic bend of mind? There are so many instances of first wives supporting writers and artists while they are struggling and at the first sign of success they are relegated to the post of a shrewish woman. And the man is pitied and spoiled with pity, love, lust and whatnot.

Verdict - Would not recommend it...unless you are really curious to know about the sad reality that the 'Little Prince' was.

You can read my other reviews at http://wanderlustathome.wordpress.com/

Not an emulatory relationship-- fascinating to see the inner workings of two passionate and surrealist people, the kinds of minds that could produce 'The Little Prince' through their friction over their tumultuous marriage and separations. Tons of famous cameos and beautiful writing.

Deeply, desperately, devotedly romantic, despite the torrid affairs and betrayals.

TCL Call #: 848.91 Saint-Exupery

Madeleine - 2 stars
This is the memoir of the woman who inspired the rose in the Little Prince. I'm not sure if it's because she wrote it in French even though her native tongue is Spanish that caused the stories to seem abrupt and disjointed. I surely would be writting funny if I tried to switch to Spanish right now. I almost never read a book's introduction but I am glad I did in this instance as it pointed out that fact:

"A year or two after Antoine's disappearance [on a reconnaissance mission over Nazi-occupied France:],Consuelo began to write a letter of her own, a very long letter, telling the story of their marriage. Perhaps she wrote it in French, which was always harder for her than her native Spanish, because she was writing it for him, and his Spanish was never very good."

In the end it is passionate whirlwind of a story of "the Rose" who is mysteriously desired by the poets and artists she meets in an extraordinary time in Paris. Her romance to Antoine occurs upon the instance of their meeting and in fact he proposes that day.

I gave it two stars because I found it difficult to read. The people seem insane but is that because of the times or because ot the translation or because they actually were out and out nuts. Either way it's worth a perusal but from a distance.

EXCELLENT!!

I'm not a huge fan of "The Little Prince," although it has been so many years since I read it perhaps my feelings about it would be different now. I knew nothing about the author nor anything about his wife who wrote this memoir. I am not sure that I know much more about either one now, except they had quite the tumultuous marriage. But most of the memoir has a kind of whiney tone and a lot of melodramatic histrionics from the narrator about her multiple separations from her husband. She traveled extensively and in interesting circles so there was a lot of potential for the narrative to be far more intriguing than it is.

To borrow cliches from the LA Times, NYTimes Book Review, Chicago Trib, Atlantic Monthly, New Yorker, etc...

"beautiful."

"moving..!!!!"

"delicate and intelligent!!!"

"I wet my pants because I love this book so much!"

"I wet my pants again when I reread the book."

(3.5) I liked reading this book, even though both Consuelo and Antoine seem a bit nuts; maybe that's just because the book was a translation or maybe that's just how I see it.. They both described each other as being childish, which I think explains the mindset Antoine had when he wrote The Little Prince. Though I was a bit disappointed reading about who he was back then; because I had created this certain image of an author solely based on a children's book he wrote that I loved. Sometimes her thoughts felt like they were all over the place, and there were a couple of noticeable grammatical mistakes, but I still liked reading it. I won't talk about how both of them fall in and out love with each other and with other people so quickly, and how the meaning of love to both of them seems to be a bit absurd; it's their life and sometimes people can be a little nuts and absurd, but it kind of made me view The Little Prince a lot differently now, and rethink each character that he created and the meaning behind them. There seems to be more to it than I thought. I think the title of this book should be something along the lines of "The Tale of the Rose: The Tragic Love Story Behind The Little Prince."

I thought this sounded like such a beautiful love story, so I started it.