In 1947, shortly after the end of the WWII, Simone de Beauvoir spent four months travelling all over the US, meeting French and American intellectuals and randomly public speaking at conferences, but mostly discovering America and particularly Americans in their natural habitat.
L´Amérique au jour le jour is a relatively less known and less appreciated book of her, less philosophical but nevetheless a sharp collection of memories about her time in the USA, where she had the chance to go not only in big cities like New York or Washington DC, but also discovering the everyday life and passions of the simple Americans.
Very often, she refers to movie impressions about various habits and cities, that she is confronting through her journey when meeting new people and gathering new impressions. She kept going to see movies - after all, at the time, there were no Netflix or other big TV chains to fill your evenings after strolling in the big cities - but the realities taking shape are more clear and critically readable now.
She keps her critical take when it comes to the everyday social realities in the USA, as poverty and racial discrimination. Her visit to the Soviet Union, the opponent shaping most of the US politics at the time of her visit, will occur only in 1965, when she will start a similar journey, alongside with Sartre, starting from the present day Lithuania.
Her observations also touch upon the different educational background and intellectual engagement in the USA, respectively France and Europe in general. The universities in the USA, it seems for Beauvoir, aren´t preparing ´l´esprit´ of the people, meaning among others a more focus on practicalities and professional training instead of the preparation to take critically the world.
Her style is very observant and careful to details, but also reveals a side of her personality enjoying to delve into the sound of jazz and tasting with pleasure the drink of the ´New World´, the flavourfull whiskey. The more I discover de Beauvoir, the more I realize how much is still to learn about her, particularly her style, interests and unique empathic and curious writing style.
Rating: 5 stars
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