a book
The Lover
Marguerite Duras · 1992 · 231 pages
Hailed in France as "an incomparable pleasure", Marguerite Duras's newest novel is a fascinating retelling of the dramatic experiences of her adolescence that have shaped her work. Far more daring and truthful than any book she has written before, it emphasizes the tough realities of her youth in Indochina and reveals much that her earlier works concealed. An instant number-one bestseller in France, The North China Lover both shocks and entrances its readers. Initially written as notes toward a filmscript for The Lover, the book has the grainy, filmic qualities of a documentary. Gone are the romantic and nostalgic readings of the past. Here are the humiliations and passions of the poverty-ridden world in which Duras grew up: the intense sexuality of the young women who were her friends and classmates, a group of adolescents impatient for the experiences of adulthood while still caught up in the conflicts of childhood. For all who have admired Duras's previous work, here is an exciting and unexpected reading of her past - a work the French critics called a return to "the Duras of the great books and the great days."
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Kaia Gerber
“The Lover is about a young woman and an older man falling in love, but it’s written from the young woman’s perspective, which I enjoyed—especially dealing with a topic like that, because you already have your Lolitas out there, you know. I think everyone should read something by Marguerite Duras, because the way she writes is just so beautiful. She has this book of essays called Me & Other Writing that was my introduction to her, and once I experienced the way that she formed sentences, I was like, I need to read everything she’s ever written. I think I read The Lover in a day—it’s just so poetic and sad and very, very honest, and most of all I liked that it offered a different take on a story that we’ve read and seen lots of times before.”↗
