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fixesofia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Dementia
nat_kiverse's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage, Grief, Racism, Vomit, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Eating disorder, and Excrement
samarakroeger's review
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.75
a difficult read when you have a family member currently in the throes of alzheimer's disease. Ernaux cuts close to the bone in her sparse diaries of the last few years of her mother's life. this is, to me, the setting where her writing really shines in all its bare emotional intensity.
proceed at your own risk.
proceed at your own risk.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Dementia
tailwhip's review against another edition
emotional
sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement, Death of parent, and Grief
justinlewry's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
What does she remember now of her life? What does life mean to her now?
Annie Ernaux lets the reader into some of their most vulnerable moments leading up to, and immediately following their mother's death.
She writes with a kind of frankness that isn't often associated with death. Her honesty is what moved me most.
I agree with her assertion that it's too often that we deliver meaningless niceties as an attempt at comfort. I didn't feel that in her writing- there is absolutely no sugar coating here- her honesty is powerful.
We like to focus on the beauty in death, but more often than not it's brutal and drawn out to the point of exhaustion.
I also connected with the idea that art loses it's meaning after facing death- something that is echoed by Mount Eerie when he sings "when real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb".
It's not the art that loses it's meaning, but life itself- yet we create again to help ourselves and others continue.
This book will stay with me.
Annie Ernaux lets the reader into some of their most vulnerable moments leading up to, and immediately following their mother's death.
She writes with a kind of frankness that isn't often associated with death. Her honesty is what moved me most.
I agree with her assertion that it's too often that we deliver meaningless niceties as an attempt at comfort. I didn't feel that in her writing- there is absolutely no sugar coating here- her honesty is powerful.
We like to focus on the beauty in death, but more often than not it's brutal and drawn out to the point of exhaustion.
I also connected with the idea that art loses it's meaning after facing death- something that is echoed by Mount Eerie when he sings "when real death enters the house, all poetry is dumb".
It's not the art that loses it's meaning, but life itself- yet we create again to help ourselves and others continue.
This book will stay with me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent
albajl's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Medical content, and Grief
astridrv's review against another edition
emotional
sad
fast-paced
Couldn't read more than a couple pages at the time because every other sentence is heart breaking. Tender, but raw and devastating portrayal of Annie Ernaux' mother in her final years. My favourite of her books so far. But boy did I cry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Dementia, and Grief
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