The Years

I read this for the small press book club at my LBS. I didn't have any big expectation going in — I don't follow book awards and wasn't familiar with Ernaux's work. As I started reading, I found the use of we/one etc interesting, and then challenging. I flipped forward in search of chapter breaks — none! On page 102 I wrote a note: “the tense is feeling exhausting.”

I read the last 110 pages or so (ie the second half of the book) in one sitting, just before book club. I really enjoyed the first and final quarters of the book. In the middle, I started to feel a bit of a lull, and as if we were meandering. On finishing the book, the pacing feels intentional. I don't know how much to go into this, but one does feel meandering in the middle of life, so it tracks, anyway.

I thought a lot about my mom while reading, especially as Ernaux is describing her children as they grow into adulthood, and visit her. There's a great moment where she is following her sons and pondering how they could come from her. In another, she's musing about how she is a grandparent, where she still thinks that word is only for her grandparents.

There's a lot more in the book — discussions of class, sex, consumer culture. I might update this review later to think a little about those parts of the book. Overall, though, I enjoyed this. I think I'd enjoy making an attempt to read it in the original French, as well.