RaveThe ObserverHer emblematic style best mirrors the nature of an affair. Her prose is restrained, yet intense. By deliberately removing her subjectivity, she elevates her obsession to the level of melodrama. A conceit in service of the writing itself ... Rather than seek to construct a love story from her affair with S, Ernaux indulges in her own agony, observing and revering it as one might a divine test. The affair is less about S’s subjectivity and more about her desire to chase the exacting character of emotion ... It is Ernaux’s writing in Getting Lost that best approximates the tumultuous nature of an affair. Ernaux’s entries exist in the excruciating present, in the agony of uncertainty. The intimacy of a journal allows her to indulge in her desire devoid of any shame ... She begins to narrativize her life in real time, rather than mining her life for narrative retrospectively. The writing becomes inextricable with her passion, the process lays itself out over her daily life and she becomes just a character ... At times, Ernaux’s diary entries grow tiring in their melodrama ... She is simply committed to her emotional vulnerability and beholden to her impulsivity.
