The Lover by Marguerite Duras
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Book Reviews of The Lover
Book Review: Lost and lonely in colonial life
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a novel about two lonely people - but obviously it's autobiographical, about an intense love affair between a quietly assertive 15 year-old and a Chinese man twice her age. The characters are weary, weeping, exhausted by the heat, by the failure of their dreams. The lovers are beautiful and erotic, but to me the most powerful and intense character is the girl's mother - determined, sad, loving and fiercely loved. I also loved the descriptions of the river, flowing on uncaring. The oppressive heat overwhelms and weakens the characters. The story has the atmosphere of a Graham Greene novel, without the politics. I have never seen the movie, but fear it may be soft porn.Book Review: a novel not an autobiography
Summary: 5 Stars
It is worthwhile remembering that this is a novel and while it relates to her life, it is highly fictionalized. If you read her Wartime Notebooks, there is a section about her life at this time. It bears little resemblance to the novel, especially with regard to a passionate affair. In the notebooks there is none of this. In fact she describes the first time he kisses her in some detail. She was horrified and disgusted with the kiss. She felt almost as if she had been raped. Little else of an intimate nature is discussed.
So enjoy the book as a novel, a very good one, but do not read it as if it were autobiographical.
Book Review: Ms. Duras
Summary: 5 Stars
This book, written in a sparse style, is a recollection of Ms. Duras, her affair, her family, her environs in French Indochina during the late '20's and early '30's. Although it does bounce "back and forth," her style challenges you to "keep up." She is a thinker, this young girl. I encourage you to give this a read (get it at a good price) and see for yourself. It seems that the best stories are our own...Ms. Duras had quite a story to tell! Five stars!
P.S., If you haven't seen the movie, get a copy! The cinematography is the best I've seen in a foreign file - first rate!
Book Review: Haunting literary erotica.
Summary: 5 Stars
The only way I can describe this book is to say that it is haunting. Today, it would not be published, for obvious reasons, but it is one of those books that transcend reality, to put it mildly. I have to say that the story of the young girl and her lover, the older man, was one in which the reader is drawn and can't seem to let go after the last word is read. It's a keeper, defintely. Also, check out the movie, which is just as good as the book, imho: The Lover.Book Review: An examination of the role of memory in self-determination.
Summary: 5 Stars
A success on many levels this is by far the best of Duras. A novel that tackles the ways and wheres of our self construction and the role of memory and event in relation to each other...how do we use one relationship in our life to express our feelings about other unresolved relationships (here I am referring to the protaganists position in her family and society). Where do we find ourselves, can we find ourselves...and what is the role of stories/authors and the memories that all of us carry with us.