Recently this copy of The Lover, a book I've admired before, just sort of presented itself to me. I've taken up its challenge again and I've been reading it this weekend and again finding it a powerful meditation on the random strength of love. Another copy is on my bookshelf here. I wild released it about two and one-half years ago. There hasn't been a journal entry--but I hope that book found its way to another reader.

..."Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is as strong as death...Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it..."

from Song of Solomon 8: 6-7

After reading this, some of the last verses of the Song of Solomon came to mind. Duras and her love "love unto death" though they do not spend much of their lives together. This book is like a poetic meditation. Duras wrote it near the end of her life with all the emotion of the adolescent girl who unwittingly loved so passionately. The strength of family love and the forces of nature all have their place in this autobiographical novel too. It is a book I'll probably return to again. Duras wrote a second book, The North China Lover, on this passage of her life too. Apparently she wasn't finished here. I've ordered that one from the library with another Duras book, On Writing. You'll hear from me again on these two, Dear Reader of this bookcrossing journal.

I'm finding that The North China Lover is somewhat spoiling my experience of The Lover, which is a much more poetic book. Apparently, the overwhelming international success of The Lover tempted Duras back into the subject of her first love again. It was as if this love that she rediscovered in writing the novel were suddenly the source of all her joy. The second book goes into too much detail. I'm finding that it makes the story less touching and more sordid.

Half-way through the North China Lover, I've decided to return it to the library. It was originally a treatment envsioned for making The Lover into a movie. Duras was a scriptwriter and very influential in the movies apparently. North China Lover, so far, hasn't risen above script treatment. And there is a lovely movie of The Lover, perhaps I'll watch that instead to see the extra dimension Duras was envisioning for her book. From this taboo and unlikely love, an affair across race and class lines of a man in his late 20s and a girl of 15, Duras found a center somehow that was to support her as a woman. The Chinese man did love young Duras. I'm glad she had the courage to look at what she found of value in an experience that must have cost her so much emotionally.

This weekend I saw Hiroshima Mon Amour, the groundbreaking 1959 French New Wave film. Duras won a prestigious award for the script. The techniques of flashback to tell a story that this film pioneered were very much a part of films by the time I was old enough to notice them. This shows, perhaps more than this film in which someone my age naturally takes them for granted, how brilliant they were. Anyway, this film again had the story of Duras' love. I won't give it away. In her hands, for the film as for her novel "the dimestore love story" became something mythic. Human love and war, human love and human division are the central tragedies.

I've decided to send this along on a bookcrossing journey.

This sounds really interesting! Thanks for the surprise!

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

This book is released into the wild for the 2009 Family Reading Festival in Akron, Ohio!
You hold a very special book! Eighty two books were set aside by me, bookchick88, for this year's festival and you are holding one of them!

I do hope you'll take a moment to look at the site. There's lots of friendly people who love to read, and best of all, the site is free to join and participate in! I've been a member for almost six happy years.

If you do join, I'd appreciate if you'd put my name, bookchick88, in the referral spot. Feel free to send me an email if you'd like, or if you just have a question about myself and my personal experiences with BookCrossing, or the site in general. I love hearing from people.

Then, read the book, journal your thoughts on it again, and release it into the wild (public) for someone else to find and enjoy, or just pass it on to a friend or family member!

Happy Reading! ♥