thisamtheplace's review against another edition
3.5
In A Girl's Story, Ernaux traces back the origins of her writing career to the summer of 1958, when she experiences sex, ‘love’, and unrequited, obsessive desire for the first time. In retrospect, as a new and separate person, Ernaux is able to identify the intangible lines that tied past events together and explore the extent to which she had control over the path she took. It is truly fascinating to see the way in which the smallest act of from another person who disappeared from your life can have such enormous influence over the direct of your life and the choices you make.
To an extent, I think much a lot of Annie’s experience and perspective on the nature of the female experience replicates stories we have heard via various media before and doesn’t necessarily say anything unique or new. However, there are so many experiences she captures perfectly – eating disorders, dissociation, class difference, the excitement of academia, burgeoning freedom, the gulf between expectation and reality as you enter the adult world. (It is particularly hilarious to find that such an insignificant and truly mid man was the gateway to such an illustrious career)
Unsurprisingly for a Nobel prize winner, Ernaux’s writing is precise, intelligent and beautiful. (Although sometimes it feels like her sentences are poised and dramatic but don’t really mean anything for the story/subject matter she is exploring – still pretty tho!) At the same time, the non-linear vignettes and distanced tone didn’t exactly make for an enjoyable reading experience; whilst her writing was often insightful, it was at times repetitive and I didn’t always feel motivated to pick it back up despite its short length. Whilst I loved the beginning and the final pages, the middle felt a bit weaker to me.
Weirdly, whilst her distanced writing style and deliberate attempts to delineate her current self from her past self didn’t work for me as a reader, it was infinitely inspiring in terms of writing personal narrative. It has completely reshaped the way that I think back to pivotal moments and experiences in my own life, and the way these have influenced my current path. In any case, I will definitely be reading more from Ernaux – in A Girl’s Story she hints to the interconnectedness with her other work so I am incredibly excited to read more and trace the lines between her other memoirs and her fiction.
“The thought of ‘just enjoying life’ is unbearable. Every moment lived without a writing project resembles the last.”
“The girl in the picture is not me, but nor is she a fictional creation. There is no one else in the world I know in such vast and inexhaustible detail.”
“Contrary to her previous belief, insubordinate devil-may-care girls are nowhere to be found”
“It is the absence of meaning in what one lives at the moment one lives it, which multiplies the possibilities of writing.”
nicolavr's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
the girls that get it, get it.
booksreadbylaura's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
As all of her books, simply amazing!
imogenrobinson__'s review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
medium-paced
3.5
Starts off very strong and insightful but tails off a little towards the end. A very joyless depiction of Ernaux’s adolescence and an interesting exploration of how memory functions.
Ernaux renovates the traditional model of memoir in employing the third person to distance herself from the girl she was, which creates a sense of depersonalisation in her work.
Ernaux renovates the traditional model of memoir in employing the third person to distance herself from the girl she was, which creates a sense of depersonalisation in her work.