Nathalie Sarraute: A Life Between. By Ann Jefferson

Abstract

Nathalie Sarraute’s life spanned the twentieth century, from her birth in 1900 in Ivanovo-Voznesensk, to her death in 1999 and funeral in her beloved Chérence. A key feature was her ‘in between’ positioning: between languages, cultures, names, parents, literary affiliations, and professional roles. Ann Jefferson guides us through this fascinating ‘life between’. Writing a biography about an author who vehemently challenged the conventions commonly associated with that genre sounds difficult. However, Jefferson articulates a more nuanced reality, where Sarraute’s own bookshelves reveal her curiosity about the lives of writers (including Proust, Emily Brontë, and Dostoevsky). Jefferson’s Preface concludes that ‘to continue to deny this to Nathalie would be to do her a greater disservice than the one she was once so sure that this biography would be’ (p. xv). Jefferson has done full justice to this task. The wealth of material, the detail and nuance in the commentary — thanks...