During the past year, Metaichmio released two books by Anni Ernaux, widely read in Greece and France, (Anni Ernaux, Nobel Prize in Literature 2022), translated by Rita Kolaaitis. At “Shame” the author’s aim is the fragmentary but detailed anatomy of the family and social milieu of the French countryside during the first decades after World War II. Then we will watch a young woman’s adoration as she grows up for clothes and ornaments. Everything she chooses from her mortal surroundings, all her desires and their expression, are intended to erase the trauma of the attempted murder against her in relation to her relentless struggle to escape, to free herself, from her social fate. In the “Passion” the young woman has turned into a mature lady, madly in love with a stranger. Amidst the international political events of the 1990s, including the US invasion of Iraq, the narrative will be overwhelmed by a feverish sum of confused emotions with the only constant center of reference being the lust for carnal union: an exhausting geography of the male body, in combined with constant anxiety about possible abandonment, endless giving (as another aspect of the inner cultivation of companionship), willingness to be enslaved, anger and resentment due to increasing dependence, futile battles for rehab, and ultimately, unspeakable pain of separation and the transformation of the love story into literature.
In a similar situation we will meet her heroine “obsession”, recently released by Metaichmio, again translated by Kolaaitis, who has certainly worked translation miracles – and not only with Erno. The political and collective environment is now very dim, while the protagonist is once again living a distance, this time from someone with whom she has broken up, even though she has parted ways on her own initiative (as if she is tired of him, as if she is having too much trouble with him ), she begins to desire him fiercely when he announces to her that he has moved on to a new relationship. The heroine will never meet her rival as the former lover will refuse to even say her name. Nevertheless, day by day the unknown woman acquires a huge weight on his mind and consciousness: he sees her everywhere in front of him on the street, he is tormented by persistent speculations about her personality, profession and appearance, he thinks incessantly about her sexual movements with the former partner’s body and ends up hating her with all the strength of her soul. Every taboo and agreed limitation of modern culture will go for a walk along with any sense of dignity and self-respect – even if the protagonist is a cultured woman with social status and wide recognition, even if she drags with her a long-term marriage, which she broke up in the of which she was composed before she created the bond whose loss she now mourns inconsolably. She could publicly curse her rival in the worst way, she could even kill her without the slightest guilt.
Erno writes in short, sharp and counter-dramatic bursts, conjuring up a series of instantaneous and very vivid images and reactions. Images and reactions that cause us – bad lies – a strong sense of identification regardless of gender. A low-key (as soon as the voice comes out) epic of envy and jealousy (the participation of the translation in the emotional response of the reader is extremely important).
Will there be salvation? Will the protagonist ever leave behind the fiery circle of jealousy? But, of course: with unimaginable effort, with many setbacks, with tons of sadness and melancholy, but he will succeed. The fate of love is to wane and eventually perish. It remains, as in “Passion”, its recording on paper, its transformation into narrative and literature. With the difference that in this case – we all know it well – there won’t be a single drop left of the life-giving potion and its former glory.
APE BE B. Hatzivasileiou
