Shame

Shame should not be read until you have reaad both Positions and A Woman's Story, the individuals accounts of her father and mother's lives. Only then will the beginning of this work appropriately shock you: "My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June". Her response was to be ashamed of her background especially as she was enrolled in schools beyond her social class. The trip to Lourdes with her father is a particularly vivid illustration of her relationship with her father that contrasts with the picture drawn in Positions. Again Ernaux's direct style says something universal about social position and what is hidden to preserve that position.

I feel a bit full of shame for not being overly swept away by this memoir at the onset and I believe that is only because I'm immersed in the American tradition of the shameless individual tell-all, no-holds-barred, go-for-broke shock story. Yet,reading on, the reader does creep more and more inside the child Annie's head to a disturbing effect--disturbing more so because it is not Americanly-obvious--it is subtle and heartbreaking, highly intellectual and deeply felt. It is a work of great literature.