Annie Ernaux won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2022. She is a French writer and has been known in France for many years but the Nobel Prize has made her known in the whole world. Of course, the world will know her through her translated works. She was invited in 2022 as the chief guest for the Delhi Book Fair.
I started reading her book thinking it would be a bit tedious to read, as all award winning books are. But I was totally mistaken. Once I started reading it was difficult to put the book down. When I finished reading I understood why she had won that prize. Her writing is so clear and so full of courage. She speaks without any emotion about such intensely painful experiences, describing these situations as if she is observing them as an outsider.
This way of recounting the deeply unhappy times with this much clarity has not been done before. Also a woman’s voice has never been heard in this way. Women have rarely spoken about their problems because they have been taught that it is shameful. It is interesting to note the way Annie uses the word “shame” with such openness, which is something unusual. We think that this idea of shame exists only in Asian societies but to hear it from a French woman is something new for me.
Most people say that her book “The Years” is her best. Indeed, it is a very real description of how the world has changed since the 1950s. For the first time in the world’s history people are living long lives. Seventy years is nothing unusual for a normal life. Also for the first time such a large number of people can read and write. This means for the first time people can tell their stories which begin in an era when things were drastically different. The 20th century has seen great changes in the world and this has affected people’s lives.
In this book “The Years” we can see the difference between the lives of Annie’s parents and her own life, then again between her life and her children’s lives. She has said things seen from her point of view which is at the same time humourous and real. Once again we see her style of saying things very, very precisely, observing every detail. She has noticed things which others may not have. There are details she has observed which others may have thought unimportant.
Annie says that her life as an author took a decisive turn when she realised that all the memories which were in her mind would disappear the day she dies. We think that death takes away the body but we forget that it also takes away the mind and all our emotions. This is why she decided that she would write down everything that she could remember. All her memories are now in the pages of her books. She writes in the first person plural, “we”, and it makes the narration come alive. This is a decision she took so that the reader feels that it is a real story.
Her writing is apparently simple but writing in that style of extreme simplicity is also not that easy. It requires a discipline and mastery over the language so that a lot can be expressed with so few words.
Annie Ernaux speaks on behalf of all women. She speaks for her generation but also for those much younger than her. And for this she richly deserves the Nobel Prize which was awarded to her.
