Two Hours

by Alba Arikha

“Someone rang my husband. Your wife is not well, the person said. Your wife is not well.”

When Clara’s parents transplant her from Paris to New York at the age of sixteen, a fleeting encounter with a young man seems, for a brief period, to open up new possibilities. As she strives to fulfil her vocation as a writer, and as she struggles in later years with the cumulative constraints of an unhappy marriage, Clara’s imagination is strangely haunted by a life that might have been.

Tracing Clara’s story from her adolescence to her experience of motherhood, and then through to a pivotal bid for freedom, Two Hours is an exceptional novel. Witty, perceptive, and profoundly humane, this is the work of a writer at the height of her powers.

Genres: Fiction, Novels, Novella

160 pages, Paperback

Published April 30, 2024

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Alba Arikha’s arresting novella a woman, Clara, examines the fragments of her life. Looking back over 35 years she tries to make sense of her experiences, the choices she made, the things that haunted her. Arikha’s narrative – possibly autobiographical – is wry and evocative, sensitively drawn. Its episodic structure doesn’t detract from its fluidity. Clara’s a flawed but fascinating, relatable character: sometimes despairing, sometimes optimistic that change is possible. Part of that hope’s rooted in the memory of the two hours she spent as a teenager with a boy called Alexander. Alexander represents possibility: of love, of meaningful connection, something Clara clings onto throughout her later, difficult marriage.

As time passes, Clara tries to come to terms with her Jewish heritage, and undergoes a period of intense, adolescent rebellion in which she imagines herself transported into the world of Chabrol or Godard, two of the film-makers whose work consoles her. After a brief spell of freedom in a bohemian corner of New York, Clara meets a man and marries him. Later she has two children, becomes a writer, and somehow blanks out the elements of her existence she cannot quite bear, particularly the actions of her increasingly-abusive husband. Until a chance encounter renews the half-buried belief that there’s still time for reinvention. It’s an intelligent, absorbing piece, brimming with arresting images and scenes, Arikha’s approach often reminded me of Natalia Ginzburg’s one of the many women writers referenced here.

Thanks to Netgalley and to publisher Eris for an ARC

[Pgchuis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

3.5* rounded up. 16 year-old Clara's family move from Paris to Manhattan for one academic year and Clara falls for Alex, the son of the family lending them an apartment, even though she spends only two hours in his company. Despite this, she thinks about him for the rest of her life.

This was beautifully written, in a flat sort of way. It read at times as if it was a translation - not that the language was wrong, more that the narrator didn't think or speak like a native British person, which I suppose she wasn't. There were a couple of comments she made about her marriage which stopped me in my tracks; 'I wish I had known more about him before marrying him'; and her description of realizing she has fallen out of love with him. The language is simple, but somehow I found them very effective. The description of her postpartum difficulties and the reactions of others to them was well done too.

However, I can't give this a higher rating, because I found Clara quite a closed-off protagonist, and then it just ended abruptly.

[Anatolie · Rating 5 out of 5]

devoured it. the way alba writes is enthralling.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

She captures teenage yearning perfectly, other times in her life felt less so- putting them at arms length from the reader. You never feel as close to her as the moments she meets Alex and just after, probably the whole point of the book’s two hours. But misses out on a fuller connection to her life and character.

[Shane Rajiv · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent writing. Sometimes it feels you’re in a book that’s a biography, a story about a novel that is a novel you’re reading, a madness, a discombobulating sense that doesn’t fully leave you. Well done.

[LM · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Because life had not turned out as I expected. It was as fragile as lace. It dissolved between my fingers. In my heart. No terms could be dictated. Whatever I ended up with would always be instead of something else.”

[Anders Tempelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazingly well written and gripping. I envy the sparse prose that makes me to experience so much. I wanted to say that the story is quite small, but that would be incorrect. This is a story that encompasses an entire life but told in a fragmented way. I must read more from this wonderful writer!!

[Cordelia Simmons · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written, arresting journey of a woman coming to terms with her life. The author manages to capture so many of the thoughts and feelings I’ve been experiencing in ways I never thought possible.

[Chloë Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this. Brief, sad, beautiful. We've all had two hours. Oof.

[Tracy Hollen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[Alice Rickless · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m shocked this book only has 29 (now 30) ratings on Goodreads. Striking and lyrical writing, poetic prose make up this book. Highly recommend.

[Blondi Barnet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this. Lapped it up and savoured

[lena · Rating 4 out of 5]

j’ai adoré la plume et le monologue intérieur de l’autrice mais la fin était hyper abrupte

[sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

Threads of impressions that are loosely interwoven

[Marie Mihalcea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woooow what a page turner

[Evalotte Krause · Rating 4 out of 5]

A life of a woman in 160 pages, 120 chapters, for every minute of that 2 hour encounter that changed her life. Beautiful prose, very direct but gripping. An abrupt ending, as cruel to the reader as this woman’s story.