The Lover by Marguerite Duras 1984 (translated by Barbara Bray)

Originally posted October 14, 2016, in observation of Paris in July 2019, I am reposting this with the suggestion it be taken as a companion French colonial Vietnam themed novel for The Book of Salt by Monique Truong


Paris in July 2019 - Hosted by Thyme for Tea

"An old face is nothing to the frivolous world; the frivolous world is shocked by the sight of the destruction of such comeliness as it can understand; a commonplace artist sees nothing there. An old face is the province of the poets among poets of those who can recognize that something which is called Beauty, apart from all the conventions underlying so many superstitions in art and taste." - Honore de Balzac 

 "One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me. He introduced himself and said, “I’ve known you for years. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think you’re more beautiful now than then. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Ravaged.”  From The Lover by Margaruite Duras 

One of the great enigmas and pleasures  of the reading life is discovering a new to you writer and feeling like you should have been reading them decades ago. After reading The Lover by Margaruite Duras I have added her to my growing list of "read all I can authors list".  

Duras was born in Vietnam when it was a French colony.  The French government advertised in Paris for people to move to Vietnam, hoping to strengthen their hold on the area and her parents took the offer. Shortly after moving there her father died.  Her mother stayed on working as a teacher to support Duras and her two brothers.  Duras is most famous for writing the script to the movie, Hiroshima Mon Amour.  She was a prolific writer of fiction and political journalism. She was a communist.  The Lover won the very prestigious French literary prize, The Prix Goncourt award.   Over a million copies have been published.  

The narrator is a fifteen year old girl living in Saigon.  Duras beautifully invokes the feel for colonial Vietnam.  Her mother works as a teacher struggling to support her family.  We see the special status of "white people" in the society.  The richest people are Chinese descendent land owners and merchants.

The heat and the sensual richness of the city, the wonderful food, the crowds of people permeate The Lover.  

                                                           From the movie

The girl attends the school at which her mother teaches.  She is one of only three white students.  The rest of the girls are Vietsmese, from rich families.  She is intimidated by the beauty of these girls, being groomed for marriage to rich men.  One day a man in a large limousine sees her waiting for the bus to go to school.the wealthy Chinese man in the car offers her a ride.  He is a bachelor, in his late twenties from a very rich Chinese family.  He is very worldly, sophisticated.  His father sent him to school in Paris but he focused on the pleasures of Paris, especially the women.  Soon he is picking her up in his limo every day to take her to school.  The relationship would be unacceptable to his family and sexual contact with a fifteen year old was not legal.  He begins having sex with her after school.  She falls in love, not so much with him but with sex.  The descriptions of the sex is very sensual.  The man feels guilt over the relationship, he gives her a very expensive ring and takes her mother and her two brothers to expensive restaurants.  There is a complicated plot line involving her relationship with her brothers and her mother.  The story is kind of colonial sexual role reversal, normally it is the white man exploiting younger Vietnamese women.  

There is much more to The Lover than I have been able to mention.  It is a work of great art and sophistication. 

Please share your experience with Duras with us.  What should I read next?

Mel u

Moderato Cantabile by Margaruite Duras (1960)

This is my third work of fiction by Margaruite Duras.  It is a very interesting story about class distinctions.  It focuses on the relationship of a factory owners wife to her son and his piano teacher and her growing interest in a man who used to work for her husband.  She often goes to a bar where factory workers take their leisure and we see her impact on the men there. 

Mel u

The Square by Marguerite Duras (1955)

French Literature and History on The Reading Life

Not long ago I read and posted on my first work by Margaruite Duras, The Lover.  Set in French colonial Vietnam, it is a very powerful story about a young French girl's relationship with an older wealthy Chinese man.  It is a story of sexual obsession, class distinctions and the impsct of colonialism on Vietsmese society.  

I wanted to read more of her work and was happy to find four of her novels published in a Kindle edition.

The Square is set on a park bench in Paris, on a Thursday afternoon between 430pm and nightfall.  There are but two characters in the work, a woman of twenty and an older man, both sitting on the bench.  Not knowing each other, they begin to talk.  At first the conversation is the bland innocuous talk of two strangers just passing the time.  Slowly each begins to open up, their ways of coping with life begin to emerge.  Each one begins to learn from the other.

The Square is almost all dialogue.  It is interesting and worth reading.  I did prefer The Lover but that just may be because I am very into colonial Asian fiction.

I will read and post on the other three works in the collection