Piaf by Simone Berteaut
| Published on 12 Jan 2004 at 11:06 pm.
12 Comments.
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That Edith Piaf is my favourite singer of all time is no big secret. I don’t remember how or when I heard her first but I do know it was love at first note. She had this absolutely amazing voice that was unbelievably emotional and even though I don’t know enough French to know what she’s singing about, I get the gist from her emotional renditions.
I happened across this book at my favourite used book store where I have a credit, this book is so much fun to read I would have paid money for it.
Simone Berteaut was Edith’s half-sister and while their life was not one most of us would call sane or healthy, it was far from tragic … until 3 or 4 years before Edith died. The life on the streets? The booze? The men? All true. But for them, it was fun and they were honest about it. Edith really felt that she couldn’t live if she didn’t have a man in her life, even for one night. Yes, they had issues that go back to their childhood (who doesn’t). They lived in squalor and poverty until Edith was “discovered” and began to sing in nightclubs and theatres.
They sang on the streets and hustled what they could, in a time when there were no social support systems in any country, much less France.
The great tragedy is that in the span of 12 years at the end of her life, Edith suffered the loss of her true love in an airplane crash, 4 car crashes (the first of which started her struggle with morphine addiction), attempted suicide, 4 drug “cures”, 1 sleep treatment, 2 fits of DT’s, 7 operations, 3 hepatic comas, 1 spell of madness, 2 bouts with bronchial pneumonia, and 1 with pulmonary edema. (Berteaut, pp. 446 - 447). Oh, and was diagnosed with cancer. She went to sleep one night in 1963 and never woke up.
Her great fame allowed her great wealth and privilege but she died leaving her 2nd husband deep in debt. Her generosity (and her neediness) made her spend ever franc she ever made and then some. She was almost hardwired not to save or look to the future. She lived each day as though it were her last and she did what she damned well pleased, including going to the bistros and the clubs and getting potted with everyone there, buying round after round for the house. She worked as hard as she played and eventually, burned herself out.
I wasn’t even 4 when she died yet she still has a major impact on my life 40 years later. I hope she’s resting well for her big comeback.
Anne Dunhill on 24 Jun 2007 at 1:22 pm: 1
I loved the book and have recently reread it after seeing the Piaf film La Vie en Rose. Do you know what happened to Simone Berteaut?
brenda gibson on 21 Jul 2007 at 6:40 am: 2
I saw La Vie En Rose and just read the book “Piaf” by Simore Berteaut and am also wondering about Simone and her life. She was born in 1917 and I am sure she is deceased, but I would like to read about her life but can find nothing on her. Can you help me.
brigitte lanford on 24 Jul 2007 at 12:36 pm: 3
I would like to know the same thing but can’t find it anywhere.
EMcQ on 6 Sep 2007 at 2:42 pm: 4
Me too! I re read the book after seeing the film, and would love to know how SImone’s life went after Edith died.
Que nadie sepa mi sufrir « Disentangling the web on 19 Sep 2007 at 2:25 am: 5
[…] Intrebarea mea (si nu numai a mea) este: ce a devenit Simone [Momone] Berteaut? […]
Evelina on 14 Oct 2007 at 12:27 pm: 6
Simone Berteaut was not Ediths sister or half-sister. She was a frind of Edith’s and parasitized on her. Half the story of “Piaf” is not true. Simone Berteaut’s main intent was to bask in the glory reflection from Piaf.
Ann on 7 Mar 2009 at 4:26 pm: 7
Evelina is right — Simone Berteaut (”Momone”) was not Edith’s half sister (or any kind of relation. They became friends in their teens, when Edith was singing on the streets. As Evelina says, much of her book is either completely untrue, or twisted or exaggerated to make her role in Edith’s life seem greater and more important. According to Margaret Crossland in her 1985 biography “Piaf”, many of Piaf’s lovers banned Edith from having any contact with Momone, with Momone only re-establishing contact when Edith was between lovers (which was not very often). During Edith’s affair with boxer Marcel Cerdan Momone stole Cerdan’s love letters from Edith and tried to sell them to Cerdan’s wife. Crossland again: in 1969 “Simone Berteaut scored an international bestseller success with her book ‘Piaf’. This led to many complaints and legal actions across France …. She later wrote her own autobiography, ‘Momone’. She moved to a little house near Chartres where she lived with a homosexual friend. He left her and a few months later she died alone, in poverty.”
Moineau on 18 Mar 2009 at 8:39 pm: 8
It’s established that Simone was Edith’s friend from a young age. They were not sisters, and there’s no evidence that they were lovers. I fell in love with Piaf in the early seventies, and discovered Simone’s book which I read like a bible when I was a teenager - I was devastated years later when I discovered her deception. Weird kid, yes I know .
There are two interviews with Simone on Youtube, one is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iABxzFF520Y
(or just go to Youtube and search using the word “Berteaut”). Even if you don’t speak French, it’s interesting to see this woman speak. Simone was referred to as Edith’s “mauvaise ange” - her evil angel.
Having said all that, I loved the book, it made me feel part of a world that I still yearn for.
jim heidenmark on 29 Mar 2009 at 1:20 pm: 9
I AM BORED WITH THE SYSTEMATIC TRASHING OF SIMONE BERTEAUT
I have loved and cherished Berteaut’s childhood story “Momone” for 30 years.
I think its awful how “Momone” Berteaut is portrayed in this latest movie, La Vie En Rose ….
They have her clutching a bottle of wine, screaming as the police cart her off away from Edith’s arms as she is arrested ….( still clutching the wine bottle, begging to be allowed to stay with Edith !!!) …. that gross drempt up scene is beyong the pale …..
Berteaut was so thoughtlessly demonized for years as to draw attention to her demonizers’s crude jealousy and utter “small mindedness” …..
I recommend Berteaut’s “Momone” as a real “sleeper classic” worthy of the Academie Francaise …
.. if there be justice ….
mary ouellet on 4 Aug 2009 at 6:12 am: 10
well my mom was going to give this book to the 2nd hand store, it caught my eye, PIAF, i was hooked the moment my hand touched it. as i was reading i held myself back from watching or listening to anything from her, till i was done. turns out i have heard her when i was young, my grandad was french and understood her, i even remember trying to sing like her in our carport. the book made me laugh, cry and my jaw hung motionless a few times too, Edith certainly live life to the fullest. too bad she was taken from Theo so early, and how it must have broken his heart, and how the loss of Marcel must have torn out her heart. although personally i like a book that makes me cry, i still am happy to have read this one. HIPP HIPP HOORAY.
momone on 21 Oct 2009 at 12:00 am: 11
heh? you call yourself a fan? “Simone Berteaut was Edith’s half-sister ” she was not a blood relative to piaf!!
B Marisa Ray on 11 Apr 2010 at 7:55 am: 12
Does it really matter whether she was or wasn’t? It’s her book that counts, and it’s obvious from reading it that she absolutely adored Edith. It’s sad people want to trash the person who gave us such an insight to Edith’s life. If you must judge, judge someone for their work, not their life.