Sally Jay Gorce
The pink-haired American narrator who treats Paris as an experiment in freedom and learns that comic recklessness does not make her invulnerable.
To use her two funded years abroad completely: pursuing theater, sex, friendship, travel, and whatever feels least like the conventional life planned for her.
The book
At a glance
- First-person narrator
- Paris, the French coast, and later New York
- Her uncle Roger finances two years abroad
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeSally Jay is twenty-one, quick-witted, theatrical, vain, candid, and determined to experience everything her temporary freedom allows.
Because she tells the story herself, readers see both her self-invention and the moments when her jokes cannot protect her from what other people are doing.
How the book draws them
- Young American womanShe is twenty-one and newly independent.
- Pink-tinted hairHer deliberately unconventional color is one of her signatures.
- Stylish 1950s clothesHer appearance changes with the role she wants to play.
- Amused direct gazeConfidence and self-mockery coexist.
- Close engraved bustThe Left Bank setting stays in the body art.
- Muted blue accentThe cool color keeps the pink hair from becoming cartoonish.
Larry steals and misuses Sally’s passport and she sees him assault Lila. She escapes, leaves Paris, and later agrees to marry Maximilian Ramage.
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