The Years

by Annie Ernaux

Signs of collective change cannot be perceived in the specific features of lives, except perhaps in the disgust and fatigue that led thousands of individuals at once to think, in exasperation, “So that’s how it is—nothing will ever change.”

Of all the ways in which self-knowledge may be fostered, perhaps one of the greatest is a person’s ability to discern how they view the past, at every time of life and every age;

The profusion of things concealed the scarcity of ideas and the erosion of beliefs.

Young couples and new parents were invited to each other’s homes. Unmarried people, oblivious to monthly bills, tiny Gerber jars, and Dr. Spock, were viewed as an immature species whose freedom of movement vaguely offended.

The more immersed we were in work and family, said to be reality, the greater was our sense of unreality.