Silences, or a Woman's Life

by Marie Chaix, Harry Mathews (Translator)

When a woman falls into a coma, her daughter accompanies her through six weeks of agony, bearing witness to the prolonged death imposed upon her by the monstrous machine of modern medicine. During this final voyage through the fog, the narrator attempts to reconstruct the portrait of a woman whom she deeply loved.

Genres: Fiction, France, Literary Fiction, French Literature

180 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1988

Reviews

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

A liturgy of misery. Documenting the slide of a mother’s health over years by a narrator daughter, this is the real fucking atrocity exhibition. The pointillist detail is excruciating. It is written beautifully—beyond, really, it is brilliant and incisive—but the chronicling of physical and mental deterioration is brutal. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Hug your mom if you got one.

Ideal for the miserabilist in your life, which, if you’ve read this far, is likely you.
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OR,

Ontoloctopus Penetrative Analysis Review II:

French.

[Colette Bernheim]

Not to sound hyperbolic but this is probably one of the best books I have ever read…..

[Salty Swift · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really need to quit reading stories thematically focused on death!

[Nick Soon · Rating 5 out of 5]

《...but a closer look reveals that what she is wearing around her neck is her life. It’s as though her translucent skull had been drained of all remembrance, and her memories had been gathered in these little jars that cling to her, strung together by slender chains to form a ghastly necklace. The jars contained outdated images of old joys and sorrows; the recollections, enhanced by time and forgetfulness, which give a life its value and which, when that life is spent, are no more than dead objects to the people who inherit them.》
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Excerpted from Solitude, Or A Woman’s Life, by Marie Chaix, translated by Harry Mathews.
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With verses so beautiful and riveting like these, there’re moments when I can’t help but wonder: is this a novel I’m reading, as it’s supposed to be, or is it a poem I’m tirelessly re-reading, enthralled? So now I can’t wait to dive into her other books.

[Sonia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stele: o carte trista, cu o retrospectiva frumoasa. Mi a placut imbinarea naratorilor si actiunea nu a fost una plictistoare.

[Donald Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of consummate quiet, with lots of space and lots of empathy.

An interesting work of feminine Oulipo.

[Donald Lands · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of consummate quiet, with lots of space and lots of empathy.

An interesting work of feminine Oulipo

[Jerrod · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfectly titled work: life can be traced by the silences it leaves behind.

To approach death is to come to terms with the absences, erasures, possibilities, and failures of life.

As someone who has watched a beloved slip away, I can attest to the lyrical acuity of the text, which not only taps into the fight with memories but the struggle against the increasing queerness and emptiness of modern medicine's (and general culture's) relationship to the infirm and dying.

An elliptical and necessarily fragmented narrative that is a testament to love and grief.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars What a beautifully written novel, so poetic....