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thebobsphere's review against another edition
5.0
Before Annie Ernaux, Simone de Beauvoir also documented certain aspects of her life and giving them a philosophical twist, I will stop with the comparisons as it’s not fair.
1964’s A Very Easy Death documents the last six weeks of Simone de Beauvoir’s mother, who was already the subject of 1958’s Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter. In the book her mother slips while in the bath and breaks her femur, which leads to other complications.
Simone de Beauvoir portrays her mother as an emancipated woman, when her husband died, her mother began to do things she was not able to do such as travel and not meet her friends as her husband (Simone de Beauvoir’s father) banned her from doing, yet she also portrays her as a submissive person, within her marriage and to an certain extent during her illness. Thus she is a contradictory person.
As the illness gets worse de Beauvoir notices the decay of her body, at one point she calls her mother a living zombie, in which she then questions her mother’s existence and the imminent death. At this point we are seeing de Beauvoir’s main philosophies embedded in A Very Easy Death: feminism and existentialism, the former is because her mother was overpowered by a man, This crops up again through the incompetence of the male doctors tending to her mother. The latter is through her mother being on the brink of death.
When her mother dies, de Beauvoir wonders why she has taken it so badly and she comes to the conclusion that her mother had a bigger part in her life, which intensified her feelings towards her. As a conclusion de Beauvoir states that death is never natural or easy, it’s is always the cause of something.
As I said earlier A Very Easy Death was controversial because it was thought that de Beauvoir was capitalising her mother’s death, In fact, Ali Smith states in her excellent introduction to this Fitzcarraldo reissue, that de Beauvoir was taking notes by her mother’s hospital bed. Despite these accusations the book is an emotional one with many heartfelt moments. In a Very Easy Death, the topic is treated in a open and unflinching way but at the same time it’s not cold and calculating.
whataliciaisreading's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
“When someone you love dies you pay for the sin of outliving her with a thousand piercing regrets.”
Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘A Very Easy Death’ recounts, day by day, the final weeks of her mother’s life. Simone de Beauvoir's style is marked by its honesty, a rawness that materialises the most difficult and abstracts of emotions into text.
Most disheartening is her mother’s loss of autonomy and dignity (which, in opposition to her usual character, demonstrates a loss of self in these final days) and the continued suffering facilitated by doctors who believe it is their vocational duty to prioritise even a temporary survival. De Beauvoir shows us, in acute detail, that dying is often a far worse ordeal than death.
Paired in this edition with Ali Smith’s persuasive introduction (which asks the seminal question, 'Can you ever really yoke together with anything other than unease the word ‘easy’ and the word ‘death’?’), it is rewarding when reading to understand the controversy that surrounded this account upon its initial publication. In the 86 pages of this emotive yet unsentimental account of her mother dying, Simone de Beauvoir does not pull any punches. Yet it’s this frankness with which she shares those painful details that makes this a must-read.
Simone de Beauvoir’s ‘A Very Easy Death’ recounts, day by day, the final weeks of her mother’s life. Simone de Beauvoir's style is marked by its honesty, a rawness that materialises the most difficult and abstracts of emotions into text.
Most disheartening is her mother’s loss of autonomy and dignity (which, in opposition to her usual character, demonstrates a loss of self in these final days) and the continued suffering facilitated by doctors who believe it is their vocational duty to prioritise even a temporary survival. De Beauvoir shows us, in acute detail, that dying is often a far worse ordeal than death.
Paired in this edition with Ali Smith’s persuasive introduction (which asks the seminal question, 'Can you ever really yoke together with anything other than unease the word ‘easy’ and the word ‘death’?’), it is rewarding when reading to understand the controversy that surrounded this account upon its initial publication. In the 86 pages of this emotive yet unsentimental account of her mother dying, Simone de Beauvoir does not pull any punches. Yet it’s this frankness with which she shares those painful details that makes this a must-read.
desireeslibrary's review against another edition
3.0
An interesting reflection on watching your mother away. But, I don't know.... I do myself to be more critical of shorter books. I found myself yearning for more while reading and at times it felt a bit self-indulgent. It had the potential to destroy me... but did not. I can see why people love it though, it's raw and emotional and beautiful. Just wasn't the best for me.
cruzsuzanne's review against another edition
4.0
"When someone you love dies you pay for the sin of outliving her with a thousand piercing regrets. Her death brings to light her unique quality; she grows as vast as the world that her absence annihilates for her and whose whole existence was caused by her being there; you feel that she should have had more room in your life –all the room, if need be. You snatch yourself away from this wildness: she was only one among many. But since you never do all you might for anyone –not even within the arguable limits that you have set yourself –you have plenty of room left for self-reproach."