The train crawls along, as the autumn conditions in Toronto necessitate caution when navigating the open-space areas of the subway track. Exteriors is in many ways the most ecstatic of Ernaux's books – the first in which she appears largely free of the haunting personal relationships she has written about so powerfully elsewhere, and the first in which she is able to leave the past behind her. Ez a nyolc év az ingázásnak, a bevásárlásnak, a fodrásznál töltött időnek a történéseit örökíti meg nagyrészt, innen származik az élményanyag. So I got involved, heavily involved, deeply involved, right down to ending up with a tube in my womb, all because of a not-very-clever comment, all because of myself. The author is a spectator, rarely ever participating in the world around her — unless it’s standing in line or stepping onto the train (where many of the scenes take place) to then introduce someone else.

Ez az első - és egyetlen, azt hiszem -, ami nem Ernaux életét tárgyalja, noha tulajdonképpen ezek a benyomások is személyesek. In this memoire Ernaux sets out to relate her observations during her daily outings on the train, in the supermarket or the mall like a series of snapshots.Yet at the same time I have this need to record scenes glimpsed on the RER, and people’s words and gestures simply for their own sake, without any ulterior motive. Nos pedaços de uma prosa simples, mas acutilante, reflecte sobre a condição urbana na contemporaneidade de uma metrópole europeia, mas também sobre a sua condição enquanto mulher e enquanto escritora. Strangely enough, there exists another truth, the exact opposite: when we go back to a town we left a long time ago, we imagine that the people there will still be the same, unchanged. It’s so understated, in fact, that I’m not sure a publishing house would touch it now were it from an unknown author.

It forces one to cherish what’s been given to them, and recognize that peace cannot exist without a little bit of chaos. My Ernaux odyssey continues with the latest republication by the UK publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions.Tanya Leslie was the first translator of Annie Ernaux into English and translated a number of her works, including A Woman’s Story (1991), A Man’s Place (1992), Simple Passion (1993), Shame (1998), I Remain in Darkness (1999) and Happening (2001). My attention span *overall* in life has been very lacking these months and that also applies to reading.

It’s a story of fleeting encounters, overheard conversations and clear-sighted observations that will make you pay attention to the seemingly ephemeral details of ordinary life. Both laws rely on the same misconception of reality, the only reference being oneself: in the first case, we imagine everyone else has lived our life, while in the second, we long to recapture our past identity through people who are frozen in time, whose features are the same as when we last saw them.Reminiscent of the poet Denise Riley’s Time Lived, Without its Flow, a study of how grief mangles chronology, Simple Passion is a riveting investigation, in a less tragic key, into what happens to one’s experience of time in the throes of romantic obsession. I do like the smart and courageous writing of Annie Ernaux, but I could have taken a pass from reading these snippets taken from her journal and never felt anything missing from my life. The exhibitionism of people, discussing loudly their lives in public transport while being dressed in tracksuits, made me think of social media and how much easier it is nowadays to mass broadcast oneself to the world. but there were some moments that were hit and miss, and, although i think that the cultural references are important to/add to the book, not being able to fully understand them sort of isolates the non-parisian reader (which may have perfectly been intentional, who's to say?

Born in 1940, Annie Ernaux grew up in Normandy, studied at Rouen University, and later taught at secondary school. I n a few years from now, in the middle of hypermarkets, we shall probably see cinema screens, promotional lectures on painting or literature, maybe even lessons on computers. Exteriors is in many ways the most ecstatic of Ernaux’s books – the first in which she appears largely free of the haunting personal relationships she has written about so powerfully elsewhere, and the first in which she is able to leave the past behind her. She says she wanted to take a closer look at strangers she encountered in her own world, to see what they might offer her.Ernaux wanted to capture images with the eye of a photographer, and then translate those captured images into her more familiar medium, the written word. Reminiscent of the poet Denise Riley’s Time Lived, Without its Flow, a study of how grief mangles chronology, Simple Passion is a riveting investigation, in a less tragic key, into what happens to one’s experience of time in the throes of romantic obsession.