The Years
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By Annie Ernaux, and and, Alison L. Strayer
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Considered by many to be the iconic French memoirist’s defining work, THE YEARS is a narrative of the period 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present, photos, books, songs, radio, television, advertising, and news headlines. Local dialect, words of the times, slogans, brands and names for ever-proliferating objects are given voice here. The voice we recognize as the author’s continually dissolves and re-emerges as Annie Ernaux makes the passage of time palpable. Time itself, inexorable, narrates its own course, consigning all other narrators to anonymity. A new kind of autobiography emerges, at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective. On its 2008 publication in France, THE YEARS came as a surprise. Though Ernaux had for years been hailed as a beloved, bestselling and award-winning author, this was in many ways a departure: both an intimate memoir `written’ by entire generations, and a story of generations telling a very personal story. Like the generation before hers, the narrator eschews the `I’ for the `we’ (`on’ in French) as if collective life were inextricably intertwined with a private life that in her parents’ generation ceased to exist. In inventing a new genre – the collective autobiography – Annie Ernaux has written a genuine, genre-bending masterpiece which cements her place as one of our greatest memoirists.
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Reviews
Our Hythe Book Grouo read this in June 2023
A total of 17 of us met on a warm June evening to discuss our May/June reads - Nobel prize winning Annie Ernaux’s The Years.
9 people had read it - some in the original French!! Excellent translation.
An autobiographical novel? A narrative? A memoir? Not like anything I had read before and I found it compelling and loved it. Memories, impressions, flashbacks, fragments with recurring themes of Sunday lunches with the family some of whom were born in the 1870s. Hinges on photographs of herself throughout her live eliciting memories throughout her life set against the social, political and sexual history of France at the time. Might have been helpful and interesting to have the photos themselves. Background of the Normandy coast.
Stylistically interesting as written in the third person
Her childhood, life as a student in the 60s, under Mitterrand in 1981, ( of particular interest as I was there) .
Made me think back on my life. What snapshots would I include?
Started like a poem - short sentences, no punctuation, no chapters, random thoughts and sayings, but then became more challenging and complex with long almost stream of consciousness passages. Language changes as ideas and memories become more sophisticated and complex.
Engaged more with it in the parts where I was familiar with the references and the historical periods.
Loved the details of French life- brought back great memories of living there in 1970s and 80s. Enjoyed the references to societal changes - shopping, education, attitudes, women’s sexual history - contraception, etc.
Footnotes a but annoying at times - chose things to explain that I felt were obvious and with which I was familiar , Couldn't find some of the words but other things were obvious.
Bits reminded me of Kristen Hannah’s The Nightingale.
Didn't enjoy the style but found the social history interesting.
Interesting how consciousness has changed since the 1970s - populism - how now we all think we have a valid viewpoint which is legitimate to express and there are no truths. As a university lecturer Ernaux would disagree.
Was it really Nobel prize winning material? Realised however it is given for a whole body of work. I have been reading John A. Farrell’s Pulitzer prize winning biography of Nixon - parallels but also very different and not as good. .
Theme of memory and history. What is it that makes us who we are? The times in which we live? Our family and upbringing? Do we have free will or are we victims of circumstance?
Use of the French impersonal “on” was interesting - collective and universal rather than the individual. Personal memories and impressions but even though it is her life it is set against the collective background and she extracts universal and collective truths from it.
Female perspective on France. Religion, politics, sex - socialism, Catholicism etc.
Honest.
Interesting section on immigration, Le Pen , anti-semitism, etc “A demagogue with a hateful grin who played to the gallery” - reminiscent of anyone?
Made me think a lot about a person’s life. Depressing..?
Total of 69 Scores in the range of 6 to 9 with an average score of 7.6
