The Lover, by Marguerite Duras
Title: The Lover
Author: Marguerite Duras
Published: Random House, Inc., 1985
Originally Published: Les Editions de Minuit., 1984
Pages: 115
Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts
.
At first glance, this novel bears more than a passing resemblence to an earlier assignment of mine for this challenge, The End of the Story by Lydia Davis. Both feature a female narrator describing an unorthodox/dysfunctional affair she once had; both are told in a highly chronologically non-linear fashion; both have a lot of description in minute detail. That previous assignment? I hated it.
First off, Duras knows how to write description well - rather than tedious/tl;dr, hers is focused and very evocative.The setting - French Indochina during the late 20's and early 30's mostly, with a bit of WW2 era France - is beautifully described and fascinating to read about She really does atmosphere well, but without romanticizing the negatives that French colonialism entailed. She actually captures the nuances of that system quite well...for example in one passage, she describes the fact that her family was considered very poor, but qualifies that - unlike the 'native' poor, they never went hungry, and still had servants and houseboys from among the same...
The structure of the novel, time skipping, narrative skipping, mish mash of places and times, also works well here. Unlike that Davis novel, Durant actually ties all her narratives together, ultimately into one understandable meta-narrative. Like she begins by describing the ferry ride where she met the lover, skips back, describes dysfunctional family situation, mentally ill mother, attempted rapist/gambler/abusive to everyone/drug addict older brother, dead father, poverty etc. etc. so by the time she returns to describing the affair and how it unfolded, you understand the protagonist's motivations a lot more. Certain sections seem tangents - a description of some official's wife who had affair, was socially ostracized, interesting details about the time and place but why is she writing this, but then it turns out to be an extended metaphor, a comparison to how she was ostracized at the French high school she attended once her affair with the much older man became generally known, etc. etc.
The actual affair - well. I wouldn't call this a romantic novel, lol. For one thing, the whole affair is basically statutory rape - the girl is 15 at the start and the man 27, and its actually stated a few times that he was quite scared of getting arrested on account of her age. He is rich, which is much of what attracts the girl to him, since her mother seems to have raised/trained her to pursue money, and there are...well scenes where after her family finds out, they use him for money but treat him like crap at least partly out of racism, him being Chinese, assuming she's only with him for money not any real feeling because of course she couldn't be in love with a Chinese dude, etc. And uh, mother's implicit acceptance of daughter's de-facto prostitution of herself, etc. Also, the passages of their sexual encounters, especially the first...there's a definite level of cynical emotional detachment on the part of the narrator/girl, which I resonated with me personally/probably added to my enjoyment of the book but...again, I would not call this a romance in the traditional sense...
The characters...again, girl resonated with me in some ways so I found her a narrator/character I cared enough about to enjoy reading, though a lot of the rest of the characters, especially the family...not too likeable. But very real, understandable.
The book is short, a quick read. I have no complaints about the translation, and liked it enough that I may eventually try to be ambitious and read it in the French. Not long/hard to get through at all. I found the 'spare but luminous' description of the prose to be pretty spot on actually. So yeah, I would definitely recommend this one, and agree that it belongs on the books you should read before you die list.
Author: Marguerite Duras
Published: Random House, Inc., 1985
Originally Published: Les Editions de Minuit., 1984
Pages: 115
Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts
.
At first glance, this novel bears more than a passing resemblence to an earlier assignment of mine for this challenge, The End of the Story by Lydia Davis. Both feature a female narrator describing an unorthodox/dysfunctional affair she once had; both are told in a highly chronologically non-linear fashion; both have a lot of description in minute detail. That previous assignment? I hated it.
First off, Duras knows how to write description well - rather than tedious/tl;dr, hers is focused and very evocative.The setting - French Indochina during the late 20's and early 30's mostly, with a bit of WW2 era France - is beautifully described and fascinating to read about She really does atmosphere well, but without romanticizing the negatives that French colonialism entailed. She actually captures the nuances of that system quite well...for example in one passage, she describes the fact that her family was considered very poor, but qualifies that - unlike the 'native' poor, they never went hungry, and still had servants and houseboys from among the same...
The structure of the novel, time skipping, narrative skipping, mish mash of places and times, also works well here. Unlike that Davis novel, Durant actually ties all her narratives together, ultimately into one understandable meta-narrative. Like she begins by describing the ferry ride where she met the lover, skips back, describes dysfunctional family situation, mentally ill mother, attempted rapist/gambler/abusive to everyone/drug addict older brother, dead father, poverty etc. etc. so by the time she returns to describing the affair and how it unfolded, you understand the protagonist's motivations a lot more. Certain sections seem tangents - a description of some official's wife who had affair, was socially ostracized, interesting details about the time and place but why is she writing this, but then it turns out to be an extended metaphor, a comparison to how she was ostracized at the French high school she attended once her affair with the much older man became generally known, etc. etc.
The actual affair - well. I wouldn't call this a romantic novel, lol. For one thing, the whole affair is basically statutory rape - the girl is 15 at the start and the man 27, and its actually stated a few times that he was quite scared of getting arrested on account of her age. He is rich, which is much of what attracts the girl to him, since her mother seems to have raised/trained her to pursue money, and there are...well scenes where after her family finds out, they use him for money but treat him like crap at least partly out of racism, him being Chinese, assuming she's only with him for money not any real feeling because of course she couldn't be in love with a Chinese dude, etc. And uh, mother's implicit acceptance of daughter's de-facto prostitution of herself, etc. Also, the passages of their sexual encounters, especially the first...there's a definite level of cynical emotional detachment on the part of the narrator/girl, which I resonated with me personally/probably added to my enjoyment of the book but...again, I would not call this a romance in the traditional sense...
The characters...again, girl resonated with me in some ways so I found her a narrator/character I cared enough about to enjoy reading, though a lot of the rest of the characters, especially the family...not too likeable. But very real, understandable.
The book is short, a quick read. I have no complaints about the translation, and liked it enough that I may eventually try to be ambitious and read it in the French. Not long/hard to get through at all. I found the 'spare but luminous' description of the prose to be pretty spot on actually. So yeah, I would definitely recommend this one, and agree that it belongs on the books you should read before you die list.