ahsensbooks 's review for:

Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux

3.0

challenging emotional reflective fast-paced

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Annie Ernaux is a French author known for her works that highlight issues such as class mobility, marriage, women’s freedom, sexuality, abortion, illness, aging, and death through events drawn from her own experiences. She was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements, and collective restraints of personal memory.”

The book Simple Passion, which I listened to as an audiobook on a Sunday morning with coffee and knitting, wasn’t long enough for me to make too many comments on. It tells the story of a middle-aged woman’s relationship with a married man and the deep passion, even obsession, she feels for him. Although the woman’s behavior is criticized by society, I was able to understand that intense feeling of love, attachment, and even obligation towards another person. Sometimes, the woman acts so irrationally and makes such absurd decisions that you think, “No way.” But she herself critiques her own actions. Given that, I found the story quite humane. Because she won the Nobel Prize in Literature and writes books on topics that interest me, I will definitely check out Annie Ernaux’s other works.