The Lover was a breakthrough book for Duras. Telling of her life in Southern Indochina, on a “plane of birds”, as she says. She is dropped by her mother at the bus stop, and then takes a ferry across the delta. Here, for the first time, she sees the man who will in time become The Lover. He is a wealthy Chinese man, cultured and put together, almost perfect – a stark contrast to this tatty young girl with her worn shoes and paper thin dress. But with her foot on the rail of the boat that causes her bottom to push out and her young breasts thrust forward, she can’t help but attract attention. She’s a girl completely at ease with herself, and although as of this moment, when the Chinaman first sees her, she is still sexually inexperienced.
The Lover offers her a cigarette, which she declines – and gracefully, graciously, as if she’s used to this sort of thing. Her calls her a “young, white girl on a native bus” “it’s so surprising” he says, and compliments her hat – a mans’ hat on a young girl, and says she is so “pretty, she can do anything she likes.” He tells her he is just back from Paris where he has taken some business studies. It’s an awkward conversation, the kind you have with someone with whom you have nothing at all to say but are attracted to nonetheless and who you desperately want to fuck. This happens. They speak awkwardly and often, the film cuts to his hands visibly shaking.
Her offers to drive her to Saigon, a ride she accepts. She tells him she is seventeen. He is twenty something and jobless and “Chinese, what’s more…” she tells him. It’s hard to say if this is a game – one in which she just wants to exercise or test the control she has over men due to her beauty or sensuality, or if there is a genuine interest. It seems that this is more a curiosity – that she is somewhat bored and tired and rundown by her family, who are a mess with one brother who is clearly abusive and with whom there is a weird sexual vibe, a mother who is always sort of ragged and put upon, and another brother who seems a bit slow or ill and whom she wants to take care of. The desire to escape from such a situation is understandable, and as she is at the age of burgeoning sexuality, it’s no wonder that she would be curious. He has everything to offer her, and most of all, a chance to exercise some control over her life, which is otherwise completely out of control. What would it be like to take him in her mouth? To touch his pale, lemon skin that is like silk – so smooth, like parchment – not so different, really, from her own, though she is “white” he says. She doesn’t look it. She looks more Vietnamese/French.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
very nuanced and exceptional review - life can be very complicated and pretending it isn't so doesn't change it
2 - srp
Eric - absolutely right. it's all shades of grey, really. Part of me wants so much to believe in Absolutes - you know, Right/Wrong - but it's never so simple, tho' i wish it were so. Interesting and that's a whole article|blog in itself - shades of grey are the hardest things to negotiate in this life -- for me anyway.
~~~srp
3 - Eric Olsen
another lesson from this: perky breasts are dangerous
4 - srp
eric eric
true true true
*
*~}
5 - ryan
thanks for restating everything you could learn from just reading the book.
6 - sadi
yeah, well, you know some people hadn't read the book, and since i published Duras's LAST BOOK before she died when i was a book publisher, i felt i had something to say. Thing is, nobody made you read it, and if you know so much, then go write your own review. I never said this was my best, but then, perhaps you hadn't seen other work and even if you had, you'd have some pithy comment about that too.
Since you seem to know so much, how about you sign up and educate all of us, because really, we are all just hanging on your every word and awaiting your wisdom, and fuck, just because i corresponded with Duras and she allowe dme to publish her book and my husband published her first (uh, that would be this one reviewed here), you're right. What the hell would i know. That said, i could have done a much better job but it was an off day,
but as i said; i'm assuming you never have off days since you so freely attack the work of others, so i'm waiting, practically shaking with anticipation, to read your forthcoming reviews.
Line 'em up. Send us the links. I'm sure all of us here at Blogcritics have a great deal to learn from a brain like you.
Really -- . Not kidding. Educate us. After all, we're all stupid here.
Just ask Eric - i'm sure he'll agree. Right?
Thanks though, for such a clever, thoughtful, and very brave comment!
Aren't you too clever by half.
7 - Mark Saleski
wow! sadi channels dawn olsen!!
who woulda thunk it?
;-)
8 - sadi
mark, you crack me up...
love,
s.
9 - kbee
The presentation of a 15 year old child having "sexual power" dovetails perfectly with the delusions of pedaphiles. The rapist's "she really wanted it" argument shows up again and again, regardless of whether the victim is 5 years old, or 15, or 95. Look at the cover photo for the film. How can you look at a pathetic, deranged adult man checking out a child's ass and not want to stop him?
10 - Cerulean
The Lover was a very powerful book. There's a line either from the book or from the movie saying, "In the dessert that was the rest of their lives." I was was particularly moved by that. It's in the movie. I looked for it in the book but couldn't find it. Is it there, Sadi? Where?
When the book came out, a friend gave me a copy and said that I reminded her of the girl in the book. Not that I was some guy's mistress, but I dressed kind of like that and I grew up in an exotic place where whites were a minority . . .
Sadi, if you were Margarite Duras's publisher, would you please tell us about that. I want to know about it.
11 - anna
hey sadi,
thanks for the review it was really good. i havent actually seen the movie but it seems pretty close to the novel. i have to do a presentation on it (the novel) for uni and needed some background cos im pretty slack and havent thought 2 much about it. anyway, very thought provoking. the theme of my unit is 'difference and desire' and your review really helped me realise how that plays in the novel. top stuff,
thanks again, Anna
12 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
hi there:
I"m not sure where the exact line you speak of is, probably toward the end of the book would be my guess, but you can, i believe, search the book on Amazon for specific phrases, so try that.
AS for publishing Duras: Yes, i published her very last book (i believe this was her last according to the agent who represented it, a very reputable agent) and the book is entitled simply "Writing" or "Ecrire" in French. It was translated by Mark Polizzotti (my husband) and published by Lumen Editions, which was my publishing imprint that i ran for years when i worked in book publishing (he still does: i'm in IT but still on the fringe of books, since i've done it for so long...)
Mark suggested that Random House publish The Lover when he read it in France and he saved all of his notes back and forth with the editors. They "did not think an American audience would accept this book" or something like that (not a direct quote, but i do have the correspondence back and forth just for a lark).
How funny, then, that we both, as editors, published Duras, wound up getting married and were both told that Duras would not sell in America. And here we are... her books have done very well and The Lover is a classic among a certain group of people anyway ~~ I could go on, but don't wish to bore others w/ this history of mine etc etc. Maybe one day i'll write it all up in a memoir no one will buy, lol...
Be well,
Sadi
13 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
the earlier points about pedophelia, that i did not see until now are well-taken. You make a valid point andI can't address it really because The Lover was based, as I understand it, on Duras's life experience, which she often drew on for her fiction - so it's likely partially anyway, a true story of her youth. It's hard to know with her. So this doesn't make it okay but if she wants to write about her life then what can i say about that other than to review the work and that's that.... but i get your point.
thanks,
s.r.p.
14 - shees
now that this page has gone necro...
15 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
quoi?