I'm not sure how to review this, it is an exquisite memoir that's for sure. But it's hard to describe why.

I think some of it comes from the eloquent writing and translation here, how much influences the other is hard to tell though. I think the start has some beautiful passages on memory, but it took me a bit longer to *really* get into this. The book really stood out to me when Ernaux talks about the 60s, especially May 68 which seems to be a pivotal moment for her. But even then, the memoir still has those traces of memories that sound familiar to whenever I've spoken to my grandparents. All of the shifts of the mid-late 20th Century, the rapid changes from austerity to welfare capital and consumer culture, the contrast between the lives in media and history books and the realities of working class lives in this period, the alienating shifts towards neoliberalism and the 21st century. Ernaux displays all of that in way that is more than a memoir and becomes more sociological in how this is documented and described.

Even with how specifically French this is (it might help having some ideas on French political history for this), there's passages that sound familiar from others, as well as ones that feel relevant to me.

Definitely recommend reading this, taking your time with it and really letting it absorb.