Things Seen
Annie Ernaux, Brian Evenson, Jonathan Kaplansky“Annie Ernaux’s work,” wrote Richard Bernstein in the New York Times, “represents a severely pared-down Proustianism, a testament to the persistent, haunting and melancholy quality of memory.”
In the New York Times Book Review, Kathryn Harrison concurred: “Keen language and unwavering focus allow her to penetrate deep, to reveal pulses of love, desire, remorse.”
In this “journal” Annie Ernaux turns her penetrating focus on those points in life where the every day and the extraordinary intersect, where “things seen” reflect a private life meeting the larger world. From the war crimes tribunal in Bosnia to social issues such as poverty and AIDS; from the state of Iraq to the world’s contrasting reactions to Princess Diana’s death and the starkly brutal political murders that occurred at the same time; from a tear-gas attack on the subway to minute interactions with a clerk in a store...
"While the neutral tone, economy of style, and preponderance of political and social events may belie any intimacy, Annie Ernaux somehow succeeds in expressing the personal, whether it be her above-cited remark on truth, a description of her terror during a tear-gas attack in the subway, or her references to the importance of the role of writing in her own life. (...)" - E.Nicole Meyer, World Literature Today
Annie Ernaux’s thought-provoking observations map the world’s fleeting and lasting impressions on the shape of inner life.