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Review
‘Rarely have I read a novel so flawlessly written.’ Spectator
‘Very beautiful, highly intelligent, enjoyable and original.’ Sunday Times
‘Perfect, a “tour de force”…accessible in the way Thomas Mann’s “Death in Venice” or D.M. Thomas’s “The White Hotel” are accessible…dealing successfully with the strong themes of erotic love and death.’ New York Times Book Review
‘A spectacular success.’ Edmund White
Product Description
A sensational international bestseller, and winner of Frances’ coveted Prix Goncourt, ‘The Lover’ is an unforgettable portrayal of the incandescent relationship between two lovers, and of the hate that slowly tears the girl’s family apart.
Saigon, 1930s: a poor young French girl meets the elegant son of a wealthy Chinese family. Soon they are lovers, locked into a private world of passion and intensity that defies all the conventions of their society.
A sensational international bestseller, 'The Lover' is disturbing, erotic, masterly. Here is an unforgettable portrayal of the incandescent relationship between the lovers, and of the hate that slowly tears the girl’s family apart.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A translation, this dark self-absorbed short novel is classic Duras. Frequently referred to as an erotic novel, The Lover falls short of that. The novel is much more than the story of a young girl in French Indochina (Vietnam), and her first lover, an older wealthy local man. Duras tells a darker tale of emerging adolescent sexual power and selfishness, a mother-daughter relationship, and the taboos inherent in colonialism and foreignness.
The Lover was awarded the French Goncourt prize in 1984. The strength of the novel is in the underlying despair of the narrator's triangulated memories. The narrative voice the reader hears is of an older woman reflecting on her past. Duras, when writing the novel, drew upon certain aspects from her childhood in Saigon. She was also an experimental writer with an alcohol problem. Her writing style is pared to the bone.
In 1992 the film version of The Lover, was very successful. The eroticism in the film appears to have become a popular misconception in relation to the book. This particular publication has a reader introduction to Duras, her writing style, her early life in French Indochina. I highly recommend the film available on DVD.
The Lover was awarded the French Goncourt prize in 1984. The strength of the novel is in the underlying despair of the narrator's triangulated memories. The narrative voice the reader hears is of an older woman reflecting on her past. Duras, when writing the novel, drew upon certain aspects from her childhood in Saigon. She was also an experimental writer with an alcohol problem. Her writing style is pared to the bone.
In 1992 the film version of The Lover, was very successful. The eroticism in the film appears to have become a popular misconception in relation to the book. This particular publication has a reader introduction to Duras, her writing style, her early life in French Indochina. I highly recommend the film available on DVD.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wandering around a bookshop at the age of 21 I came across a paperback with a shiny siler cover. It was The Lover by Marguerite Duras. I opened the book and read the first paragraph and was immediately captivated. I cannot praise this book enough. It is written in a 'stream-of-consciousness' style and draws the reader into another world, another time, another level of reality. I have bought and given this book away about 6 times - to men I thought would appreciate its literary qualities or, more usually, its depth of human emotion and how it says much more by what is left unsaid. I fell in love with the Vietnam of both the novel and the film (also available on Amazon). Even while earning a lowly secretary's wage, I began to save for a trip to Vietnam. At the age of 31 I made my trip to Vietnam and it was much more than everything I hoped it would be. This book is in my top 5 and is adorable. For anyone who wants to experience something totally different via a novel, in terms of location, history, style of writing and emotion, this is the novel for you. Enjoy...
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
THE LOVER is a wonderful, rich, evocative novel -- but a work of fiction, hardly a guide book to Vietnam which would be obvious to anyone of reasonable intelligence.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Worth a read
I studied this book at university, and at first I wasn't very taken with it. It can be confusing with the fragmented memories as this is an autobiographical novel, so required a... Read more
Published 2 months ago by SophieA
Only deserves one star
I recently visited Vietnam, and was recommended this book in one of the guide books. I thought it was absolute rubbish, the English translation wasn't very good, and the story... Read more
Published on 3 Mar 2010 by Lynda Baker
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