A review by serendipitysbooks
The Years by Annie Ernaux

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

 The Years is a unique memoir, for it is not just the story of a single individual, but rather of a whole generation,  particularly its women. It traverses the years 1940-2006 and tells of their humble beginnings in a conservative peasant family and of all the changes they lived through; everything from the cold war and the sexual revolution, to the internet and the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It manages to be both incredibly personal and, if not exactly universal, then at least broadly representative of white women of Ernaux's generation. There's a mix of the political - the war in Algeria and French presidential elections - and the personal -  abortion, breast cancer, divorce, and retirement. The writing was, as expected from a Nobel Prize winner, superb. I loved the reflections on photographs and all the references to cultural touchstones like books, television programmes, brand names, and advertising slogans. The combination of the detached third person "she" and the collective "we", and the way these expanded the traditional conception of a memoir made this a memorable reading experience. 
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