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A review by shit_she_reads
The Lover by Marguerite Duras
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
“The Lover” is Marguerite Duras’ most famous novel and was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1984. Its acclaim was one of the reasons I wanted to read the novel and I do also enjoy reading a (French) modern classic every now and then.
“The Lover” is oftentimes compared to “Lolita” due to the obvious parallel of both novels revolving around sexual—or dare I say criminal—relationships between an adult man and a girl. Contrary to Nabokov in “Lolita”, Duras writes from the perspective of the girl which made it much easier for me to read because I wasn’t as disgusted the entire time. However, that didn’t really make the situation of the teenage protagonist literally selling her body any better. I don’t necessarily think that the relationship of the protagonist to her older “lover”* is romanticized—on the contrary, I was surprised by how much the novel broaches issues like classism and racism to contextualize the relationship. The fact that the narration switches from first person to third person and the protagonist is referred to as “the child” towards the end further acknowledges the power imbalance to her “lover”.
The novel is praised for its lush prose and while it is indeed beautiful, I found the structure or the lack thereof very confusing. The narrator switches between settings and years sometimes within the same paragraph. 20 pages into the novel I decided to not even try to understand the exact sequencing of events and just trust the process. This did work out in the end, but wasn’t very pleasant overall.
I honestly don’t know how to feel about “The Lover”. I do believe the novel provides a—for the time—new and important perspective to a discourse which was dominated by “Lolita”. I liked how the relationship between the protagonist and her “lover” is embedded within her strained family dynamics and how the author made sure to contextualize the relationship by addressing the issue of racism in what was formerly known as French Indochina. Still, Duras just couldn’t win me over—mainly due to the lack of structure and incredibly confusing writing style. If I’m being honest, I just didn’t enjoy reading “The Lover” and this was not due to the topic. I don’t think I’ll give Duras another chance, sorry.
*The reason for my quotation marks for “lover” is that I believe the term “lover” cannot describe the relationship of an adult man to a girl because it requires the ability of the latter to consent to any such relationship.
“The Lover” is oftentimes compared to “Lolita” due to the obvious parallel of both novels revolving around sexual—or dare I say criminal—relationships between an adult man and a girl. Contrary to Nabokov in “Lolita”, Duras writes from the perspective of the girl which made it much easier for me to read because I wasn’t as disgusted the entire time. However, that didn’t really make the situation of the teenage protagonist literally selling her body any better. I don’t necessarily think that the relationship of the protagonist to her older “lover”* is romanticized—on the contrary, I was surprised by how much the novel broaches issues like classism and racism to contextualize the relationship. The fact that the narration switches from first person to third person and the protagonist is referred to as “the child” towards the end further acknowledges the power imbalance to her “lover”.
The novel is praised for its lush prose and while it is indeed beautiful, I found the structure or the lack thereof very confusing. The narrator switches between settings and years sometimes within the same paragraph. 20 pages into the novel I decided to not even try to understand the exact sequencing of events and just trust the process. This did work out in the end, but wasn’t very pleasant overall.
I honestly don’t know how to feel about “The Lover”. I do believe the novel provides a—for the time—new and important perspective to a discourse which was dominated by “Lolita”. I liked how the relationship between the protagonist and her “lover” is embedded within her strained family dynamics and how the author made sure to contextualize the relationship by addressing the issue of racism in what was formerly known as French Indochina. Still, Duras just couldn’t win me over—mainly due to the lack of structure and incredibly confusing writing style. If I’m being honest, I just didn’t enjoy reading “The Lover” and this was not due to the topic. I don’t think I’ll give Duras another chance, sorry.
*The reason for my quotation marks for “lover” is that I believe the term “lover” cannot describe the relationship of an adult man to a girl because it requires the ability of the latter to consent to any such relationship.