A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux

 

I'd never even heard of French writer, Annie Ernaux, before... That is until she won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2022. I decided to give one of Ernaux's books a try to see what her writing was like.

I ended up listening to the unabridged audio version of A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux and narrated by Tavia Gilbert. This is an early work by the author, which was published in 1995. It's a short read at approximately 145 pages. A Frozen Woman is categorized as both a memoir and as historical literary fiction on Amazon's website... So, I can only assume this book is a work of creative nonfiction?

I enjoyed A Frozen Woman and the writing style of the author. A Frozen Woman is definitely a feminist read, which presents a cultural history/snapshot of women in society. Topics touched upon included how women are viewed in society, societal norms/expectations of women, trying to have a different sort of lifestyle as a woman than the one society expects from you, and trying to have it all/juggle it all. 

I think Ernaux presents the material well. In my opinion, A Frozen Woman is a great book to read during Women's History Month. Tavia Gilbert narrated A Frozen Woman very well.

Below is the publisher's summary for A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux from Amazon's website:

A Frozen Woman charts Ernaux's teenage awakening, and then the parallel progression of her desire to be desirable and her ambition to fulfill herself in her chosen profession - with the inevitable conflict between the two.

And then she is 30 years old, a teacher married to an executive, mother of two infant sons. She looks after their nice apartment, raises her children. And yet, like millions of other women, she has felt her enthusiasm and curiosity, her strength and her happiness, slowly ebb under the weight of her daily routine. The very condition that everyone around her seems to consider normal and admirable for a woman is killing her.

While each of Ernaux's books contain an autobiographical element, A Frozen Woman, one of Ernaux's early works, concentrates the spotlight piercingly on Annie herself. Mixing affection, rage and bitterness, A Frozen Woman shows us Ernaux's developing art when she still relied on traditional narrative, before the shortened form emerged that has since become her trademark.

I am giving A Frozen Woman by Annie Ernaux a rating of 4 stars out of 5 stars.

Until my next post, happy reading!!