Annie Ernaux's work, wrote Richard Bernstein in the New York Times, represents a severely pared-down Proustianism, a testament to the persistent, haunting and melancholy quality of memory. In the New York Times Book Review, Kathryn Harrison concurred: Keen language and unwavering focus allow her to penetrate deep, to reveal pulses of love, desire, remorse. In this journal Ernaux turns her penetrating focus on those points in life where the everyday and the extraordinary intersect, where things seen reflect a private life meeting the larger world. From the war crimes tribunal in Bosnia to social issues such as poverty and AIDS; from the state of Iraq to the world's contrasting reactions to Princess Diana's death and the starkly brutal political murders that occurred at the same time; from a tear-gas attack on the subway to minute interactions with a clerk in a store: Ernaux's thought-provoking observations map the world's fleeting and lasting impressions on the shape of inner life.
Annie Ernaux was born in 1940 in Lillebonne, France. Her autobiographical narrative, La Place,won the Prix Renaudot, and her books, A Woman's Story and A Man's Place, were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year. Ernaux's most recent novel, Les Annees, is widely considered one of her greatest works. Jonathan Kaplansky has translated numerous works, including Helene Dorion's novel Days of Sand and Helene Rioux's novel Wednesday Night at the End of the World. Brian Evenson is a professor and director of the Literary Arts Program at Brown University. He is the author of Altmann's Tongue (available in a Bison Books edition) and, most recently, Last Days and Fugue State.
Title: Things Seen (French Voices)
Author: Brian Evenson,Jonathan Kaplansky,Annie Ernaux
ISBN: 9780803228153
Binding:
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Publication Date: 2010-03-01
Number of Pages: 106
Weight: 0.1407 kg
Praise for the original French edition (La Vie exterieure) of Things Seen: La Vie exterieure perfectly illustrates writing's raison d'etre. Christine Rousseau, Le Monde (Paris) La Vie exterieure bears witness to the desire, the need to capture life, even the insignificant. It attests to the memory that we have of others, including strangers, and in whom Annie Ernaux searches for and recognizes herself. La Vie exterieure is also a book of assessment and indignation. The writer reacts to human distress, war, poverty, and to the arrogance of power. Johanne Jarry, Le Devoir (Montreal)B The pieces in Things Seenare from another battlefront: daily life in 1990s France, interrupted by poverty, news reports and bomb threats in the Metro. Ernaux captures faces and scenes in a fleeting, ghostly way. Her observations are intended as evidence, many of them made on the train/bus system in and around Paris. This is a beautiful translation -- Ernaux, poorly translated, seems heavy and difficult. Things Seen is light; it asks little of readers. Things blur by -- war, petty theft, small acts of terrorism. There's nothing you can do. - Susan Salter Reynolds, La Times
