The Lover (The Perennial Collection)
4 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by running-gal from Blackwood, South Australia Australia on Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Reserving for the 1001 books Virtual Book Box Australia.
I found this story quite masterful, written as it is by an author at the top of her game looking back over her earlier life. I enjoyed the way that the past and the present wove in together like threads as Duras paints a picture of what must have been a very difficult time for her family (this is only ever skirted really, I would have liked to know a bit more back story about the mother and brothers and family dynamic). It was an interesting story to me because as much as it was a coming-of-age story of a vulnerable young girl, the girl seems to be the more knowing and have more power within the relationship than her much older lover.
Sending to crimson-tide as part of the 1001 books VBB October 2013 round... enjoy!
Sending to crimson-tide as part of the 1001 books VBB October 2013 round... enjoy!
Journal Entry 3 by running-gal at 1001-Library, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases on Monday, October 7, 2013
Released 10 yrs ago (10/7/2013 UTC) at 1001-Library, A Bookbox -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sending to crimson-tide for the 1001 books VBB
Journal Entry 4 by crimson-tide at Balingup, Western Australia Australia on Saturday, October 12, 2013
Thanks very much, running-gal. A nice slim one! ;-)
Book 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.
'The Lover' is disturbing, erotic, masterly and simply unforgettable.
Book 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.
'The Lover' is disturbing, erotic, masterly and simply unforgettable.
Offered on greenbadger's "One book a month offered 2017" thread for May:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/10/537608
So will be reading soonish.
http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/10/537608
So will be reading soonish.
Written when Marguerite Duras was seventy years old, the novel is a semi-autobiographical account of her relationship (at age fifteen, and being a relatively poor French girl in Saigon) with a rich Chinese man twelve years her senior. Written as many short, almost impressionistic recollections, shifting between first and third person, and also moving about in time and place, the style does take a while to get used to. The characters are nameless and the writing is sparse but so well done that I found the emotional tone coming through quite easily.
The narrator has an unusual upbringing in what was then French Indochina, and the family dynamics, which are alluded to frequently but never really explained, are particularly unusual - dare I say exceedingly dysfunctional...
Overall it's an interesting and different read which is definitely well written, but also somewhat disturbing.
The narrator has an unusual upbringing in what was then French Indochina, and the family dynamics, which are alluded to frequently but never really explained, are particularly unusual - dare I say exceedingly dysfunctional...
Overall it's an interesting and different read which is definitely well written, but also somewhat disturbing.
Postal release to greenbadger as the recipient of my "one book a month RABCK" for May.
Received from the one book a month thread. Thank you very much! :)
Journal Entry 9 by greenbadger at St Albans, Hertfordshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 24, 2018
Winner of the Prix Goncourt and made into a film. A young French girl living in Saigon, in the 1930s, is alienated by her mother's depression and the family's poverty. Her older brother is a gambling drunk and possibly responsible for the death of her younger brother. She finds some control in her life by taking as a lover a wealthy Chinese man. It's a sharp reminder that times have changed, because the outrage of her family and society is almost all because of the mixed race relationship, not because she is 14 and he is 12 years older, which I found uncomfortable reading. Although I can see that it's well written, it's not a style that I like, dotting around in time with it sometimes reading more like stream of consciousness.
Journal Entry 10 by greenbadger at St Albans, Hertfordshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, July 10, 2018
Released 5 yrs ago (7/10/2018 UTC) at St Albans, Hertfordshire United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Sending to Bookworm-lady who chose this from Alphabet VBB round 15. Enjoy! :)
Thank you, well received!
It came with a travelling companion, and a lovely postcard.
I have wanted to read it for a long time; thanks for making it available. :)
It came with a travelling companion, and a lovely postcard.
I have wanted to read it for a long time; thanks for making it available. :)