Book Review: A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux

A Woman’s Story 

by Annie Ernaux

Originally published by Seven Stories Press (1991)

Fitzcarraldo Editions

pp 69

 

Annie Ernaux is a writer’s writer; only another writer can fully appreciate her unerring precision with language and syntax that fluidly converge to create a masterpiece. Less is more and less is best. On the surface, Ernaux’s work is unapologetically unsentimental, but on a deeper level, her finely crafted prose conjures many layers of raw emotion that have been stripped of all pretense. It is not only what she writes about that is important; what she chooses not to write about is even more important. To read A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux is to experience her mother’s life, and also what it means to be fully human and alive.