In this case, the young girl’s vengeance is to then ask the lover how much it would cost him to do “what he just did” to a prostitute, and then when he tells, she makes him pay that amount. In doing so, she somewhat takes the power back and remains the keeper of the reins. She literally charges him – makes him pay – for raping her. It is never spoken of again, and she seems not surprised by what has happened to her, which is really sad that such a young girl has such a cynical and worst-expectation view of the world.
It soon becomes clear that The Lover is obsessed with this young girl. He is jealous (set off by the overly provocative and close-hipped dance with her brother at the restaurant), possessive (for it should be him and only him, because now that he has deflowered her, he owns her he seems to think), and will not leave off about her returning to France. He cannot or will not marry her or legitimize their relationship. The best he can do is to offer her a stone that belonged to his mother – a diamond ring that she places on her finger.
All he can do to explain her lack of real faith or love in him is to force her to say that all she thought about when she saw him on the ferry was “money.” That, after all that they have been through, for her it was all about money. This isn’t really the truth, and he knows it. It’s that he cannot understand what exactly it is about, and that she doesn’t love him, must mean that she feels contempt or whatever the opposite of love is.
In reality, it’s a lot more complicated. Her desire seems to be curiosity and as noted, a need to escape and in a sense, be reborn. To be broken in order that she shall be made whole. So she chooses him, and he breaks her and then she is reborn. When her brother and mother accuse her of only wanting money and of sleeping with the Chinaman, she tosses the ring at the brother, but denies the love-making. Her one brother seems to take pleasure in beating her, but this time, she hits him back, which is a change. It is as if by taking her body and with intent, offering it up to another person, she has found her true power and reclaimed what was always, and always should have been, hers. One wonders if the brother did in fact rape her. Incest is not entirely out of the question in this story – and it’s a theme that runs through. Even the Chinaman is just a bit older than her brother, and abusive in many of the same ways. If you relive a trauma, but play it out differently, come out the other side victorious, maybe you get over it.
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?