“Save something from the time where we will never be again.”
Ernaux decides to write the story of her life in this memoir which charts it from the year 1941 to 2006. She begins by using memories and keepsakes such as photos and diaries as frameworks to work on her biography. Narrated in the third person, she transports the reader to her early years to explore the changes in the past half a century. The memoir is a combination of personal recollections and collective memories that encompass the past. Ernaux tells the stories until the end where she highlights the decision and writing process of the autobiography. The main motif in the book is aging hence she ponders on the significance of memories and recording them as one ages. She observes that the new generation barely concerns itself with past happenings, thereby, all the more reason to preserve it.
“In the humdrum routine of personal existence, History did not matter. We were simply happy or unhappy, depending on the day. The more immersed we were in work and family, said to be reality, the greater was our sense of unreality.”
The author writes events in history that took place for over 60 years of her life and therefore entail significant moments. She speaks on historical occurrences such as the Second World War and the Algerian war that transpired in her lifetime. The memoir focuses on the things in the past, present, and future and how they interact with each other through time. Writing in the third-person plural allows Ernaux to explore the collective sentiments of their generation in these times. In the quote, she affirms that mundane life immerses humans into their personal lives so much that external factors hardly matter. Essentially, she means that despite the life-changing occurrences in history, our reality lies in our individual lives.
“Like sexual desire, memory never stops. It pairs the dead with the living, real with imaginary beings, dreams with history.”
Ernaux explores the sexual awakening in the mid-20th century that allowed young people to embrace the topic of sex, especially girls. She addresses the taboo nature of sex and sexuality in her adolescence that prevented girls from exploring their womanhood. Unlike their male counterparts, women had a hard time expressing themselves freely in terms of their inner desires and preferences before marriage. As such, after joining college, Ernaux allows herself to explore her suppressed feelings and desires. The statement demonstrates the power of sexual desire akin to how memory never ceases and connects us.
