A Woman's Story by Annie Ernaux

 Source of book: Audiobook from the library.

 

I had a house call in another town, and needed a short audiobook for that. This one was on my list, and happened to be available from the Los Angeles Public Library. 

A Woman’s Story was originally written in French, translated by Tanya Leslie, and narrated by Tavia Gilbert. While most of the audiobooks I listen to are fiction, this one is non-fiction. 

 

Ernaux grew up in a working class family, but an upwardly mobile one. Her parents grew up fairly poor, and worked as agricultural laborers as children. However, they were able to open a grocery store, and with the income from that, send young Annie to a Catholic school. Eventually, she would graduate college, and marry above her class. 

 

This is important, because much of the central conflict between the author and her mother involves these class differences. Ernaux both loved her mother, and was frustrated by her. And vice versa. 

 

The book is the story of her mother’s life, but mostly about her aging, decline, and eventual death with dementia. The story is brief, without a lot of extra detail, but told in a tender and perceptive manner. 

 

I have worked with elderly clients for over two decades, and dementia is an issue central to my legal practice. If we have the good fortune to live long enough without something else killing us, every human will eventually develop dementia. Extended lifespans and the fact that we have found treatments for many of the killers of the past means that more and more of us live long enough for our brains to deteriorate with age. 

 

Ernaux’s description of her mother’s descent from an independent and fierce woman to the helpless and confused person she became before death is haunting, but it is also familiar. 

 

I felt that the book captured elements of French society - both the working class culture of the 1940s and 50s, and the later academic culture after the sexual revolution. Ernaux’s experience of being better educated than her parents is something I feel myself, although the difference was greater in her family than in mine. 

 

Overall, the book is a loving portrait of a complex and often difficult woman. Those of us with aging parents will find this book particularly interesting.