I Remain in Darkness Study Guide

The author summarizes the events on which her book is based. A drunk driver had hit her mother two years before, and I Remain in Darkness recounts the author's mother's gradual decline since that event. In the summer of 1983, the author's mother shows signs of deterioration. Annie Ernaux, the author, brings her mother into her own home to live with her and her two sons until her mother becomes too ill and requires so much care that she must be moved to a full-time medical facility. Ernaux jots notes during her mother's illness, describing emotions and memories. She believes that she will never publish these diary-type fragments; but later, after her mother's death, she puts her notes together as a basis for the book. The title is based on the last sentence her mother ever wrote, "I Remain in Darkness." Annie Ernaux examines her own feelings and how she used her writing to come to terms with her memories of her mother. (read more)