Chanson Douce: A Book Review

Content Warning: This article discusses sensitive topics that some readers may find triggering, such as: murder, death, abuse, and general violence. 

Hello, everyone! To kick off the New Year, I resolved to read as many French novels as possible to improve my language skills. My first novel of 2025 was Chanson douce by Leïla Slimani. Slimani won the prestigious Prix Goncourt—France’s highest literary honor—for her work. Believe me when I say that this book was incredible. I could not put it down—I would speed through homework assignments and meals just to read a couple of pages.

Plot

Myriam and Paul are a young, bourgeois couple living in Paris with two small children: Mila and Adam. After spending years as a stay-at-home mother, Myriam longs to return to her former career as a lawyer. The couple consequently seeks out a nounou (nanny) to take care of the children. At first glance, Louise seems perfect. Devoted, attentive, and obsessed with cleanliness and order, she quickly becomes invaluable, countering the chaos of the couple’s home. However, Louise has a murky past and cracks she’s been attempting to cover up. As her mental state unravels, her destiny becomes increasingly tied to Myriam and Paul, unleashing a terrible tragedy upon the family.

Character Analysis

Throughout the novel, I was impressed by Slimani’s perceptiveness. Through her precise descriptions of various characters, she holds up a magnifying glass to current society, critiquing norms and behaviors we often take for granted. The juxtaposition of Myriam and Louise particularly struck me.

Myriam, like her husband, is a working parent. Yet the responsibility of raising the couple’s children falls upon her. When she chooses to resume her career as a lawyer, Paul’s mother criticizes her, calling her a “bad mother” for not choosing to devote her entire life to her children and for relying on a nanny. While Paul hardly contributes to caring for the children, he is never denounced. Similarly, one of the couple’s neighbors—a woman—calls Myriam “selfish” for supposedly choosing her career over her children. Myriam’s existence is scrutinized, dissected, and condemned again and again. Her condition is defined by paradoxes. She is “too ambitious” for simply wanting a career of her own; she isn’t “feminine” enough because she's not a stay-at-home mother. At the same time, she is never truly valued—not for her parenthood and certainly not for her personhood. When she is a stay-at-home mother, she is taken for granted and fades into the background. When she works, however, she becomes hyper-visible. Her worth—both internally and externally—is tied to her motherhood. In other words, Myriam is invisible.

Louise seems to embody everything a woman “should” be. She is gentle, meek, and unassuming. She turns her maternal instincts into a vocation, working as a nanny for wealthy patrons. She never complains and does more than what she is asked—working extra hours, hosting parties, and cleaning houses. Her conformity to societal expectations of womanhood masks her underlying mental illness and trauma—notably her abusive husband and her own daughter’s disappearance years ago. And yet, as “perfect” as Louise may appear, she is just as invisible as Myriam. Her hyper-femininity irritates Paul, who constantly critiques her “physique de poupée” (doll’s body) and delicateness. Her husband mocks her career, at one point even saying:“Je ne suis pas comme toi…je n’ai pas une âme de carpette…” (“I’m not like you—a carpet other people step on…”) When her patrons host a party in her honor, it is Louise who cleans the dishes as all the guests forget about her. Her employers take advantage of her, demanding constant subservience. This is a parallel to how women are constantly exploited in today’s society.

Themes & Takeaways

This book touches upon many different themes. Slimani recounts a frightening tale. Its premise rests upon what seems to be an ordinary, neighborhood drama—but one that quickly spirals into something sinister. She poses two questions: What pushes someone past their breaking point? And in what ways are we all complicit in perpetuating oppressive social structures? Slimani deconstructs the mythical “working woman,” seeking to humanize both Myriam and Louise in a patriarchal world that tears down their worth. This book intricately examines class, gender, and race within a 21st-century context. When Louise is revealed to have committed a grisly crime, the reader is more sad than shocked, having seen firsthand what events led her over the edge. 

All in all, this book was an excellent, thought-provoking read. What’s more, in 2019, the filmmaker Lucie Borleteau directed a cinematic adaptation of the novel, linked here: Trailer for Chanson douce.

Written by Pranavi Vedula, High School Intern