Getting Lost

In 1993 Ernaux published Simple Passion about an affair she had in 1988-89, and in this book (2001) Ernaux published the contemporaneous journals that she wrote about the same affair. Ernaux writes (and Strayer translates) about her passion with emotional detachment, and indeed she writes in her journal: “If one day people read this journal, they’ll see that there was indeed ‘alienation in the work of Annie Ernaux,’ and not only in the work but even more so in her life.”
I found this book frustrating and fascinating, probably in equal measure, and overall I found Ernaux’s craft beguiling.
Frustrating as Ernaux is only looking for a “passion”, which she has clearly had several times in the past, as she compares her sensual pleasure to other affairs, and as she writes disparagingly about her failed marriage.
Fascinating because of her ability to write about her feelings in such a detached and analytical manner, and with such apparent candour. It is this analytical detachment, this picking over one’s feelings and thoughts with such attention, that made this book so involving. Not the subject matter, but the style, although the form is inextricably entwined with the content.

I have already read a couple of other autobiographical books by Ernaux, and this undoubtedly increased my enjoyment of this book. I would not recommend it as your first autobiographical work by Ernaux.

I was reading this on a Kindle, and highlighted numerous (over one hundred) passages, it is full of illuminations, even if self evident:
To explain a life, you’d also need to have everything that influenced a person, all that they had read; and even then something remains concealed that cannot be exposed.
I wanted to make this passion a work of art in my life, or rather this affair became a passion because I wanted it to be a work of art (Michel Foucault: the highest good is to make one’s life a work of art).

I cannot place where her sons, Eric and David (about 20, but still living at home) fit in the narrative as they are mentioned in passing from time to time, but not with any emphasis. I suspect authorial reserve is exercised over them, but this grated for me, even allowing for Ernaux’s intense focus on herself, creating the life to make into art.

For reference, she mentions books by Proust, Tolstoy (Anna Karenina unsurprisingly), Mitchell, Grossman, Calvino, Borges, Kundera (disparagingly) and de Beauvoir, all of which I have read.

I received a Netgalley copy of this book, but this review is my honest opinion.

This book is incredible, as all Annie Ernaux books are. I posted about this on twitter and will post a review on instagram, and again on twitter when I have my physical copy. I have posted a review on Waterstones and it is not currently available to review on Amazon.

An emotional roller-coaster wonderfully written & very well translated.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC.

I love a translated novel, and this was no exception. Ernaux's 'Simple Passion' published in 1993 is the basis of this collection of journal entries: a story of her affair with a younger man. Translated by Strayer, the prose is stark, smart and detached which made for a kind of voyeuristic sense of peeking into someone's private, immediate and personal thoughts. Fascinating. What was also fascinating was the way in which the backstory of previous affairs and her failed marriage was conveyed and the narrative style gives an impression of self-analysis. This, combined with the journal form and the clear intelligence of the writer, I think, makes for a highly compelling read. As an academic, I loved the mention of Proust, Foucault, Borges and Tolstoy. Highly recommended, and has made me want to read more works by this writer/translator.

My grateful thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC of this novel.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for this eARC in return for an honest review.

“Getting Lost” is a diary by Annie Ernaux that were originally published in French in 2001. It details the year and a half she spent having an affair with a younger, married man.

Being a diary, the book is an incredibly personal and vulnerable look at the author’s past, though, as she herself says, she writes about the affair through a distant lens, making it seem as if the events were fictional, rather than something happening to her. Alison L Strayer does an amazing job at translating the book as well, bringing the French author’s emotive language into the English language beautifully.

I normally avoid books that talk explicitly about sex, but the way the author talks about it as an act of love, and how her attraction to and seeming “need” for him affected her on a daily basis relating to not only their sex but his general presence in her life was something that actually made me enjoy it more.

I also don’t usually enjoy memoirs but the way “Getting Lost” is presented in the way it was written (diary entries) really helped to keep me engaged me and it made me feel as if I was living alongside the author. As well as this, the book has a sort of timeless feel to it, despite the events being specified with dates in the late 80s, it felt that the dates just happened to be those rather than being intentionally given as such.

Having enjoyed this so much, I’ve now got my eye on other pieces of Ernaux’s work, especially her novel “Simple Passion” that was based on the affair featured in these diaries.

Oh I so wanted to love this book. I've loved Annie Ernaux for years and read most of her work, but I found this diary to be so gloomy and repetitive and probably wouldn't recommend it. Sorry, I wanted to love it!