The Young Man

Review

“Often I have made love to force myself to write.”

Ernaux writes about 30 pages (in this Fitzcarraldo edition) on a short affair-turned-relationship with a 20-something when she’s 50-something. She seems pleased to put a lot of words to, what I think, may boil down to “I wanted to fuck a young guy,” and if you can write as well as Ernaux, you should too. I don’t begrudge her, as she outlines, men have been doing the same thing with much less judgement for centuries. That said, I do wonder a bit what the point of this little essay was, other than to say, “I got my rocks off pretty good and wrote well while doing it.” I say the last part because in her ending pages she ties this affair to her work, Happening. I think this is a fine context, but I don’t feel the affair needs an excuse (I do not think she would agree that is what she is doing, and yet, she is clearly tying the affair start middle and end to that work as if it were necessary for it).

After all, everyone wants to feel wanted sometime. Why not enjoy it where you can?

Notes