Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Simple Passion
Simple Passion | Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
8 posts | 13 read | 8 to read
A New York Times Notable Book and France's #1 best-seller for eight months - with more than 400,000 copies sold - A Simple Passion documents the desires and indignities of a human heart ensnared in an all-consuming passion. As the narrator attempts to plot the emotional and physical course of her two-year relationship with a married foreigner, where every word, event and person either provides a connection with her beloved or is subject to cold indifference, she seeks the truth behind an existence lived for someone else, and in its aftermath, she finds it.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
Pick icon
100%
review
Suet624
Simple Passion | Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
post image
Pickpick

“Sometimes I wonder if the purpose of my writing is to find out whether other people have done or felt the same things or, if not, for them to consider experiencing such things as normal.” Ernaux writes of a passion for someone that overwhelms. Having experienced something similar, in this sparse book she brought me back to a time that remains unexplainable to me and shows me I‘m not the only one. She writes almost as an observer and that‘s ⬇️

Suet624 actually fine because it keeps things at a bit of a distance and doesn‘t overwhelm. I appreciate her honesty. I remember feeling I needed to write about my experience. She did it for me. (edited) 9mo
batsy Great review, Sue! I thought Ernaux keeping a distance was what makes it different from the usual confessional mode, and it works. 9mo
Suet624 @batsy Thanks, Suba. You‘re right. 9mo
See All 7 Comments
DivineDiana How touching that the author spoke for you! I had not heard of this book, but now am anxious to read it. 9mo
Suet624 @DivineDiana just to warn you… it certainly gets mixed reviews. 😉 I‘m going to find another one of hers because I want to see how she addresses other situations. 9mo
Graywacke Terrific moving post 9mo
Suet624 @graywacke Thank you, Dan. 9mo
62 likes3 stack adds7 comments
review
batsy
Simple Passion | Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
post image
Pickpick

"I discovered what people are capable of, in other words, anything: sublime or deadly desires, lack of dignity, attitudes and beliefs I had found absurd in others until I myself turned to them. Without knowing it, he brought me closer to the world." A tiny, perfect gem of a book on passion & obsession. It's also an elegant time capsule: the era of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War & the start of the Gulf War captured succinctly.

batsy Kudos to translator Tanya Leslie for capturing the beautiful, sparse quality of the author's prose, though I'm sure (sorry to say) that English probably doesn't quite reach the heights of French & that it is probably such a treat to read it in the original language. Great interview with Ernaux about the effort she puts in to make her books so short: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/may/21/annie-ernaux-french-writer-nobel-p... 9mo
Tamra Anything sparse & a gem I‘m up for! 9mo
batsy @Tamra And it's super short! 🙂 9mo
See All 10 Comments
Megabooks Fantastic review! 9mo
batsy @Megabooks Thank you! 🙂 9mo
Suet624 It‘s been in my shelf and I‘m finally getting to it. 9mo
batsy @Suet624 It's made me want to read all of her stuff that's available in translation. 9mo
Suet624 She‘s an author that‘s new to me. Funny how many authors there are that sneak up on me - like Percival Everett- who I suddenly “discover” and want to read everything they‘ve written. 9mo
batsy @Suet624 Yes! I want to read more Everett, too. The "only" thing that gets in the way of me being able to devote sustained attention to an author and read their backlist is all of the other books that promptly make me forget about what I wanted to read just a few minutes ago. Just a minor distraction ? 9mo
Suet624 Right? I totally get it. 9mo
88 likes3 stack adds10 comments
review
sarahbarnes
Passion Simple | Annie Ernaux, Ernaux
post image
Pickpick

My first book by Ernaux after she won the Pulitzer. I loved her sparse, raw writing in this short piece and definitely plan to read more of her work.

Ruthiella Great photo! 🤩 1y
sarahbarnes @ruthiella thank you! 😊 1y
37 likes2 comments
review
AnneCecilie
Simple Passion | Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
post image
Pickpick

Ernaux writes about her all consuming relationship with a married man.

In the Norwegian translation this is under 60p so I don‘t want to say much more.

#1991 #192025

Librarybelle Nice short read! 1y
sarahbarnes I‘ve been on the list for this one at the library for awhile. I‘m excited to read it. 1y
54 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
rmaclean4
Simple Passion | Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
post image
Pickpick

Such a short but compelling introduction to her writting. 3.5 🌟

review
placebeyondthespines
Simple Passion | Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie
post image
Pickpick

“Beginning in September of last year, I did nothing else but wait for a man.” And so starts her impassioned account of an affair with a man who consumed her every thought, movement, and desire for months. Living in this suspended reality, in which every second existed for the sole purpose of accelerating time to a moment in the future when she‘d be lost in his presence once more, everything else just faded into the periphery. 5/5⭐️

9 likes1 stack add