This book is a match, a brief flame, over before you are fully aware of the heat of the fire. A lingering scent in the air.
This slim novel is only 61 pages – a thorough review threatens to be longer than the book itself. An older woman, likely divorced, invests fully in an affair with a married man. His entire self is foreign to her – literally, as in he comes from another country, but also in the sense that he consists of another entire life that is separate from her. The book is from her perspective only, so we cannot truly know if he returns her passion – but we are certain that she is in restless love with every inch of him.
This book isn’t about what happens in the affair, it’s about how it feels to be a beating human heart longing for closeness to one specific person. Ernaux exposes the multitude of indignities involved in such bald wanting. And then, she confronts what it means to be exposed, to write about this at all. She is right there with us, inside of it – and also, nowhere near us at all.
This tale is a gift, given to us readers. Like the best gifts it is unexpected and unearned, and exists only because the giver felt moved to put this into the world. Go on, open it.