#21: a slice of ice
A short book for the shortest day of the year - Annie Ernaux's Simple Passion.
Well, we’ve made it. The shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. What a relief. I could’ve aided things by listening to my own advice and taking my vitamin d more regularly than I have been but nevertheless, we made it. We’re here.
In keeping with the theme, here’s something I wrote earlier this year about a decidedly short book, Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux. Her various collected works are published by Fitzcarraldo Editions; worth picking up, particularly if they have a bundle offer or sale. I’ve got more of her to take on soon.
Love makes us go mad.
Or is it desire? Being desired? Maybe it’s the sharing of a secret with one other person? What is it about affairs that makes us get so out of sync with what could be reasonably described as 'normal' behaviour?
In just under 50 pages, Annie Ernaux delves into this with Simple Passion. Some of the thinking patterns of her protagonist are shocking and so very French: she gets an HIV test at the height of the crisis in early 90s Paris and thinks about how maybe a positive result will be something, maybe the only thing, her former flame will have given her that might last. But in a way, this is relieving to see on the page, a bit like how Rebecca Bunch of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is sufficiently unhinged and day-to-day managing that the 'messy woman' label feels earned. This isn’t manicured; it feels like there really might be a womb wandering free underneath her various layers, travelling to places it has no business interring with.
It's a crisp gulp, like a sharp tonic-y drink with salty snacks like olives and I'm interested to see what else she's written. Her insights as to how when you're writing about 'the self' you're really going back to visit a past character was something I came across at precisely the right time.
I am currently reading The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo which I started last night. A gulp of a very different kind.