Exteriors

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Whether or not this is fictionalized, the reader will never know, which not only lends itself to the “mystery and opacity” of the characters’ lives, but Ernaux’s as well. Further along, on the same wall, I LOVE YOU ELSA and, in English, IF YOUR CHILDREN ARE HAPPY THEY ARE COMUNISTS. I look around the train, glancing the same old sea of faces staring at black mirrors (this is a tired description, and I’m leaving it there). My attention span *overall* in life has been very lacking these months and that also applies to reading. Overall I really like the writing style of Ernaux and the social perspective that is apparent in her writing.

Exteriors, Fitzcarraldo’s latest translation from the oeuvre of Annie Ernaux, consists of a series of fragmented paragraphs depicting things seen in the world, all taken from diaries kept between 1985 and 1992. It’s so understated, in fact, that I’m not sure a publishing house would touch it now were it from an unknown author. i also love how ernaux admits that she has put much more of herself into this book than planned, since "memories and obsessions subconsciously dictating my choice of words and the scenes i wished to freeze".

Taking the form of random journal entries over the course of seven years, Exteriors concentrates on the ephemeral encounters that take place just on the periphery of a person’s lived environment. One can either relate them in detail, exposing their stark, immediate nature, outside of any narrative form, or else save them for future reference, ‘making use’ of them by incorporating them into an ensemble (a novel, for instance). By focusing on surface appearances and remaining as factual as possible, Exteriors requires of the reader real, effortful contemplation to glean meaning (or to simply see, depending on your views on “truth”). I find myself turning the corner, hoping to run into someone I spoke to a few years ago, just to have the chance to strike up a conversation that will bring us back to those days.

So I think this is the last of the several brief memoirs or autofictions I have read and all in 2022 so far (! Ernaux captures the feeling of contemporary living on the outskirts of Paris: poignantly lyrical, chaotic, and strangely alive. Ernaux says, “I have sought to describe reality as through the eyes of a photographer and to preserve the mystery and opacity of the lives I encountered. The move to the new town made Ernaux a commuter, so a rich and readymade source for her sharp observations was the Réseau Express Régional, the transit system that served Paris and its suburbs.Again, she draws on diary entries she wrote while commuting on the Paris Métro, usually just observing strangers, and seeing how they help her reflect on her own life. With that being said, there are a handful of scenes so specific that I wonder how she recorded them. I read ones about her mother, her father, her early sexual life, an affair with an older, married man, an abortion, all in separate books, many based on detailed diaries she kept over the years. Of course, there’s something bleak about a new town already vandalized, but it also signifies verve and humanity.