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The Years
- Narrated by: Anna Bentinck
- Length: 8 hrs and 11 mins
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The Years
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Summary
The Years is a personal narrative of the period of 1941 to 2006 told through the lens of memory, impressions past and present - even projections into the future - photos, books, songs, radio, television, and decades of advertising and headlines, contrasted with intimate conflicts and written notes from six decades of diaries. Local dialect, words of the time, slogans, brands, and names for ever-proliferating objects are given a voice here. The voice we recognize as the author's continually dissolves and re-emerges. Ernaux makes the passage of time palpable. Time itself, inexorable, narrates its own course, consigning all other narrators to anonymity. A new kind of autobiography emerges, at once subjective and impersonal, private and collective.
On its 2008 publication in France, The Years came as a surprise. Although Ernaux had, for years, been hailed as a beloved best-selling and award-winning author, The Years was in many ways a departure: both an intimate memoir written by entire generations and a story of generations telling a very personal story.
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Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- EEL
- 24-10-20
Strange combination of voice and edition
This is an audio version of the US edition of this title and yet, oddly, the audio is narrated by the quintessentially UK-voiced Anna Bentinck. Bentinck is quite a mellifluous and plummy English voice and so having her say sidewalk, 'ass-holes' (rather than, if she undoubted would if she were to use the word, 'arseholes' -- the UK translation actually has something far ruder), high school, fall (for autumn), just jarred. Not sure why they didn't choose a US actor instead if they were going to use the US translation/edition or, conversely, use the UK edition/translation if they were going to use Bentinck.
That said, Bentinck is generally very good, but not flawless. She offers a strange mispronunciation of 'palimpsest' as 'palimset' (actually a word used several times because the narrator applies it to a feeling of having multiple parts of a life overlaid in a moment of emotional reverie), says 'emancipated' when she means 'emaciated' (a sort of verbal 'typo'-type malapropism that is very inappropriately applied to the bodies of AIDS victims in the text), and says 'parents' for 'partners' which is a simply baffling error.
These are minor points, however, and anyone not using the audio in combination with a printed copy will not notice them greatly, although the idea that the narrator's grown-up children come home 'with different parents' may raise a frown.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- C.
- 20-09-21
A beautiful novel
A tour de force which encapsulates a life time, from the varying point of view of a female character in the third person, The Years is not a story, but an interface between continuously changing individual perception and culture.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 28-01-23
Great memoir
The book captures a life in images and brief lists but it works well and is captivating.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Emma
- 19-01-23
Wonderful
I Enjoyed this book enough to give it a second listen. And I might go back again!
1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- N.S
- 22-06-23
Sorry didn’t like the voice
Too blasé all the time. Very difficult text to read but really amazing writing that I want to read now
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- roses are red
- 20-06-23
Groundbreaking
Ernaux uses the self as a conduit to channel a tale of social history from post war france to postmodernism and beyond. An incredible narrative feat
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Careful shopper
- 06-06-23
Compelling and moving
I listened practically all in one session. A marvellous evocation of what it is to live and grow older through history!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 17-03-23
The younger generations should read this, too
I love the generation specifics, as the author was my parents' age, and I am obviously her children's age. Although we lived in ex-socialist Yugoslavia, which is a few borders apart and a whole different political system from France, I was amazed how easily I could relate to the trending timeline descriptions. Which also makes me wonder, was the system actually all that different, or was it all a reflection of the post-WWII global politics?
Thank you, Annie for making this personal vs social testimony. It felt like understanding my parents and even myself better than before!
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Elin VanD
- 10-05-20
Mixed Feelings
This book is impossible to rate. It is a phenomenal cultural history 1940-2017, (France, but relevant to USA and Europe). Many insightful observations, and captures the mood of those years. The intentionally non-personal point of view makes it hard to listen to, if you like a good story. Yet it is fascinating at the same time and hard to put down. Well written. Well read.
12 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elizabeth Neubig
- 11-10-22
the Best book!
The best book I've read bringing back memories of my life and the history of the world. Although I am almost 20 years younger than the author, I remember some of the world's history she mentions names cascade back like Solzhenitsyn (whom my brother resembled on his return from France after loosing his hair and growing a beard his Junior year abroad), Boris Yeltsin, and Lech Walesa (remind me to look them up as I have little true knowledge of them other than names repeated interminably on the news). Do I know anything of the war in Algers, much less the French involvement? But yet the book is amazing in its one, we, and us perspective making you feel you are there. I always thought a book could be written using common phases and here she has done it without a hint of the trite! Of course, she won the Nobel prize, how could she not with this! Where has she been all my life. She encourages one to write...starting now! A gift of a book from one who must have been an amazing teacher.
7 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- michael
- 31-12-22
with the eyes of the generation in France
Be prepared to read through the first 50 pages before the story started making sense and you get used to the manner the book is written.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- jeremytcole
- 29-06-23
A story that truly feels like a memory
This was a phenomenal book, and the way the author told the story of her life through the viewing of someone else’s experience though it was heroin was very genius. It felt like a memory and a lesson, but it also felt like living a life alongside her.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Bobolinker
- 29-12-22
I felt as if I walked beside her through her life
Ernaux’s elegant writing style makes this more than a walk down memory lane for a person such as I who was born in the same year. Her lucid observations and evaluative commentary allow you into the room/world with her. Highly enjoyable.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Christopher C Webb
- 13-12-22
Great read
Amazing how the memories flooded back from my youth and nudged the emotions within as I listened to The Years.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Аmazon Customer
- 09-11-22
an anonymous memoir
A trip down memory lane for readers "of a certain age". And a reminder to aspiring writers: don't tarry.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 18-10-22
A real connection with time
Erneaux presents a closely observed evocation of the years of her life in France that trigger memories of one's own life and times. Her stocato description of images, conditions, vehicles, appliances, music, ideas, world events, personal experiences sexual, social and mundane. All presented with a stark simple honesty.
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Michael T. Yanega
- 18-09-23
Her Narrative Grows on You
Annie Ernaux writes the book she means to write, as you find out by the end. It is a lovely portrait of a time in the world, clearly evoked in all its frustrations and ecstasies. The French social references may not connect much with Americans, but there will be enough familiar landmarks to keep you in step. When she discusses the personal business of aging and memories I think we all can relate to her as a fellow human being.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Nina K
- 28-08-23
A masterpiece
I am a French-speaking Francophile and loved learning so much about life there throughout the years.