Annie Ernaux - Simple Passion

Simple Passion by Annie Ernaux is a creative nonfiction. Similar to her approach to other writings, including Exteriors, she aims to merely describe her reality, which includes her passion. But ultimately, something more touching than mere description will always be produced in the process of her objective and seemingly egoless writing. At the end of the day, a description of oneself will almost always become an interpretation of oneself. Ernaux’s goal of egoless description was to achieve connection, that by simply presenting the objective facts, using her honest and sharp writing, certain members of the audience will be able to understand and be brought closer to the world of people with ‘deadly desire’ like she was brought closer to them by A, and that, in itself, is an invaluable experience. Even though she treats her writing objectively, it is impossible for her to completely detach herself from that writing; this small conflict between subjectivity and objectivity makes the writing intimate and genuine without being cringeworthy or overly sentimental. And it is this subtle competition between her conscious effort to be egoless and her desire for more self-expression that produced something that might be sublime, profound, and out of her expectation. On top of that, her reality is dynamic, constantly changing itself and exerting influence over the ‘plot’ of her creative nonfiction. With the combination of all these factors comes the inspirational and shockingly beautiful final section of the book, where Ernaux meets A again. The last sentence of the entire book connected all the threads — "it is a luxury to grow out of a passion" — and she has indeed achieved it. Without the last encounter, the last paragraph, the last sentence, the book will remain a simple account of simple passion, but the last addition of text elevates the book to a chronicle of how a woman can grow out of a passion, and since that is ultimately achieved by the exposure of more vulnerability, in other words, more ego of the author, inevitably, naturally, unconsciously, Ernaux will have built a stronger bond between herself and the reader, and indeed bringing the reader closer to her, to the world of simple passion.