A Womans Story by: Annie Ernaux - Essay Example

Review of A Woman’s Story by: Annie Emaux This story detail’s Annie Emaux’s experience of losing her mother to Alzheimer’s disease. The purposeof this paper is to discuss the accuracy of this book as well as to discuss some examples from the book to support its accuracy. This particular piece is not a novel, nor is it a biography. A novel is a work of fiction usually adhering to a certain set of guidelines. A biography is a written account about the life of a person. It is in fact a detailed account of one woman’s experience in dealing with the loss of her mother. It can therefore be said that this is a somewhat historical-sociological account of non-fictional events that happened to one person. The first portion of the book explains Annie’s process of going to the hospital to retrieve her mother’s belongings and view the body of her mother. The book goes on to discuss the act of choosing an appropriate casket and other funeral arrangements. The following exert deals with Annie‘s symbolic casket choice for her mother: “ I settled for oak, because it had been her favorite tree and because she had always wanted to know whether the furniture she bought was made of oak”(pg. 4). Later in the book, the reader finds Annie in the first stages of mourning as she experiences fitful sleep, depression and thoughtful memories of her mother in order to put things in perspective. In one passage, the reader finds Annie struggling with the very memory of her mother and how to properly put her mother into context as a parent, “As I write, I see her sometimes as a ‘good,’ sometimes as a ‘bad’ mother. To get away from these contrasting views, which come from my earliest childhood, I try to describe and explain her life as if I were writing about someone elses mother and a daughter who wasnt me” (Page 49). In dealing with the loss of her mother, Annie experiences what many daughters do when mourning and then accepting the death of their mother. Her reactions and reasoning are all too familiar to anyone (particularly daughters having lost their mothers) who has lost a parent to a terminal illness. This relatively short piece is simply Annie’s account of her specific situation concerning her own mother’s death and how she dealt with it. In can be said that perhaps this piece is fictional and simply supposed to serve as a mock non-fictional piece. It is not, however, probable that this is the case. Annie writes not from a place of documenting a series of events that lead up to and follow the death of her mother but from an emotional standpoint of a daughter who has just lost her mother. The accuracy in this can only originate from a scenario where in fact the author has indeed lost her mother or has conducted extensive interviews with someone who has. Particular exerts from the piece are so entirely specific to an individual mourning the loss of a parent that it is almost impossible to estimate or fictionalize: “ the week following the funeral, I would start to cry for no particular reason. As soon as I awoke, I knew my mother was dead. I emerged from a heavy slumber, remembering nothing of my dreams except that my mother was in them, dead.”(pg. 9). Annie goes on, even though this is a relatively short book, to detail the mental and emotional disturbance that the loss of her mother takes on her: “quite often I forgot how to do things in the right order. After peeling vegetables, I would have to stop and think before going on to the next stage, that is washing them. To read was simply impossible.” (pg. 9). Only someone who has lost a loved one can truly know this type of mental confusion and emotional numbing. Annie provides her readers with these examples in order to make the reality of the situation real to them as well as document her own personal and unique struggle with the loss of her mother. It also seems that it would be a waste of someone’s time to try and become an individual who had lost a loved one simply for a book in order to make it appear non-fictional. If this were the case, than it would make more sense to write something like this and just call it fiction. In my opinion, this piece is certainly an accurate assessment of what took place on a personal level with Annie Ameaux and her mother. One exert in particular leads the reader to believe intrinsically that this book is not only an accurate account of what happened but that the author is almost trying to step away from the events in order to write about them objectively: “I try to describe and explain her life as if I were writing about someone elses mother and a daughter who wasnt me. Although I try to be as objective as possible”(pg. 49). In another exert, the author depicts the raw emotion of writing about the events surrounding her mother and the loss of her mother, “I shall continue to write about my mother. She is the only woman who really meant something to me and she had been suffering from senile dementia for two years”(pg. 11). It is clear that the writing of her mother is therapeutic for Annie and she is doing so to some to terms with not only the death of her mother but also her relationship with her mother which was sometimes rocky. In the act of writing about her mother, Annie Emaux is keeping her alive to not only herself (Annie) but to others who will read this piece. This is truly an act of celebration of her mother’s life as well as a means of coming to terms with the sometimes turbulent relationship shared by not only Annie and her mother but by so many mothers and daughters. In my opinion, it would truly be almost impossible to fabricate or fictionalize these accounts of the loss of a parent unless one had endured it first hand. In addition, Annie is telling this story from the first person which adds to the reader’s sense of accuracy surrounding this piece. If the author had wanted to fictionalize this, she most likely would have told the story from a third person perspective. She is telling this story as it is personal and specific to her own life and her own experiences. Though sad, this piece is truly one that many mothers and daughters can relate to. It is not uncommon for one to lose a parent and in hind site, try to permanently categorize that parent as either a good parent or maybe a not so good parent, as Annie struggled with. It is through the grieving process that Annie comes to terms with her mother as a parent and as an individual. In conclusion, this piece was most likely not only rather accurate to the author and her memory of her mother, but also to many women who read this piece and identify with the mother-daughter relationship experienced by Annie and her mother. Work Cited: Emaux, Annie. (2003) A Woman’s Story, Seven Stories Press Read More