The Other Girl by Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator)
We were born from the same body. I've never really wanted to think about this.
| The Other Girl by Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator) | |
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| Category: Autobiography | |
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Reviewer: Heather Magee
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| Summary: A personal insight into Ernaux's life which is both melancholic and reflective. | |
| Buy? Yes | Borrow? Yes |
| Pages: 64 | Date: September 2025 |
| Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions | |
| External links: Author's website | |
| ISBN: 978-1804271841 | |
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Ernaux's work is always very candid and her tone transparent, but this raw epistolary text must be one of the most intimate accounts I've read. Ernaux writes in direct address to her sister, however, this letter will never reach her. Why? Because Annie Ernaux's sister died of diphtheria at 6 years old, a few months before the vaccine was made compulsory in France, and 2 years before the author was even born. The large and instant void created by the jarring concept of writing to an imaginary recipient emphasises Ernaux's process of reckoning with this giant absence in her life, an absence that she has always felt but often denied.
Much of the language in this letter is blunt, like a butter knife which is sharp enough to cut but which was never really intended to harm. It is blunt because the language available for this feeling is scant; it's an alien sensation to feel guilty for being alive, or to miss someone you've never known. Abruptly, as if to validate her own subjective experience, and in so doing erase her sister's, she writes, you have always been dead.
Yet, when Ernaux became aware of her sister's fate, or even the fact of her sister's existence, she was a child. Unequipped with the tools she needed to process such a shocking revelation, Ernaux's memory thus became her fortress, as if she had to absorb all the scenery in the world in order to endure what was happening. Some of the more tender sections of the letter include the descriptions of her childhood home, and the streets where she grew up.
Inexplicably and uncontrollably though, the dull ache of something like resentment pulses throughout the letter. It is perhaps summed up within these words:
Suddenly there was you, invisible and adored, while I was pushed aside, pushed away to make room for you.
Wild conjectures take root in Ernaux's imagination. The fact that her sister was said to have died like a saint only left room for Ernaux to view herself as the devil. Two twin sisters born from Ernaux's repressed grief: self-loathing and denial.
Ernaux questions her own motives for writing this letter, much as she, in all likelihood, must have questioned her motives for publishing it. She asks herself, am I writing to resurrect you and then kill you again?. The reader remains suspended in this question which hangs like a guilty soul within the surrounding pages. It is impossible to judge, Ernaux, though. She is one of the most generous authors I've come across; stepping into her mind is a pleasure.
I'd like to sincerely thank Fitzcarraldo for an ARC of this book by one of my favourite authors! For another stark portrayal by Annie Ernaux, do not hesitate to read The Possession, a short work exploring the perils of jealousy.
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You can read more book reviews or buy The Other Girl by Annie Ernaux and Alison L. Strayer (translator) at Amazon.com. (Paid link)
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