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A review by justinlewry
I Remain In Darkness by Annie Ernaux
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