The Ethics of Geese

The Mandarins begins as a triangulation with Simone herself caught in the torrent, herself more capable and aware than the other femmes struck asunder by the egos of Camus, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.

The prose is steeped in detail, an aura of liberation fashions orange trees in Camus' (Henri in the novel) daydreams and the smells of pate and sweat signify the organic. The possibility of travel and leisure appears like deliverance. Certain de Beauvoir is playing with dates and danger -- it is still a remarkable novel, at least early on.