Sue's Reviews > The Lover
The Lover
by
by
Sue's review
bookshelves: classics, france, asia, historical-fiction, vietnam, library-book, read-2015
Feb 20, 2015
bookshelves: classics, france, asia, historical-fiction, vietnam, library-book, read-2015
Now I know why several friends have mentioned that this book has special meaning for them. I've never had a reading experience quite like this. A woman writing from her older years about her teenage experiences in Viet Nam with her Chinese lover, but also with her family. And also of her experience of Viet Nam itself--the natural world, the skies and trees and people, and customs both strange and familiar.
The book is an experiential wonder, slipping between past and present, the concrete observations of the moment and whimsical, beautiful thoughts of the natural world and the history of mankind. I loved so many of these interludes and cited many in my status updates.
And there is her much older lover, a man some 12 years older than this 15 year old girl who manifestly shouts to the world how strongly she does not love him. But what the truth was/is for her only to know:
For her too it was when the boat uttered its first
farewell, when the gangway was hauled up and the tugs
had started to tow and draw the boat away from land,
that she had wept. She'd wept without letting anyone
see her tears, because he was Chinese and one oughtn't
to weep for that kind of lover. Wept without letting her
mother or her younger brother see she was sad, without
letting them see anything, as was the custom between
them. (p 111)
Was she crying for lost love, for her lost youth, for lost memories. We won't know. But there is despair as she leaves for France.
I feel that I have now truly read an actual soulful book. Duras' soul seems to permeate the entire piece in all its contradictions of emotions and feelings, observations of life and family, loves and hates and fears and hopes. For me the sometimes disconnected style was perfect for presenting and reflecting all of this.
Definitely recommended.
The book is an experiential wonder, slipping between past and present, the concrete observations of the moment and whimsical, beautiful thoughts of the natural world and the history of mankind. I loved so many of these interludes and cited many in my status updates.
And there is her much older lover, a man some 12 years older than this 15 year old girl who manifestly shouts to the world how strongly she does not love him. But what the truth was/is for her only to know:
For her too it was when the boat uttered its first
farewell, when the gangway was hauled up and the tugs
had started to tow and draw the boat away from land,
that she had wept. She'd wept without letting anyone
see her tears, because he was Chinese and one oughtn't
to weep for that kind of lover. Wept without letting her
mother or her younger brother see she was sad, without
letting them see anything, as was the custom between
them. (p 111)
Was she crying for lost love, for her lost youth, for lost memories. We won't know. But there is despair as she leaves for France.
I feel that I have now truly read an actual soulful book. Duras' soul seems to permeate the entire piece in all its contradictions of emotions and feelings, observations of life and family, loves and hates and fears and hopes. For me the sometimes disconnected style was perfect for presenting and reflecting all of this.
Definitely recommended.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
The Lover.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
February 20, 2015
– Shelved as:
worth-considering
February 20, 2015
– Shelved
February 20, 2015
– Shelved as:
classics
February 20, 2015
– Shelved as:
france
February 20, 2015
– Shelved as:
asia
November 28, 2015
–
Started Reading
November 28, 2015
–
18.8%
"The river has picked up all it's met with since Tonle Sap and the Cambodian forest. It carries everything along, straw huts, forests, burned-out fires, dead birds, dead dogs, drowned tigers and buffalos, drowned men, bait, islands of water hyacinths all stuck together. Everything flows toward the Pacific, no time for anything to sink, all is swept along by the deep and headlong storm of the inner current..."
page
22
November 28, 2015
– Shelved as:
historical-fiction
November 28, 2015
– Shelved as:
vietnam
November 28, 2015
– Shelved as:
library-book
November 28, 2015
–
21.37%
"What happens there is silence, the slow travail of my whole life.... I've never written, though I thought I wrote, never loved, though I thought I loved, never done anything but wait outside the closed door."
page
25
November 29, 2015
–
31.62%
"truly mesmerizing, seductive prose. pulls me along, into pieces of her life."
page
37
December 1, 2015
–
39.32%
"Kisses on the body bring tears. Almost like a consolation. At home I don't cry. But that day in that room, tears console both for the past and for the future. I tell him one day I'll leave my mother, one day even for my mother I'll have no love left. I weep. He lays his head on me and weeps to see me weep."
page
46
December 1, 2015
–
40.17%
"On the sidewalk the crowd, going in all directions...I can still see it now in pictures of present prosperity, in the way they go along together without any sign of impatience, in the way they are alone in a crowd, without happiness...without sadness, without curiosity, going along without seeming to, without meaning to...alone and in the crowd, never alone even by themselves, always alone even in the crowd."
page
47
December 2, 2015
–
52.99%
"I forget everything, and I forgot to say this, that we were children who laughed, my younger brother and I, laughed fit to burst, fit to die."
page
62
December 2, 2015
–
57.26%
"Betty Fernandez. My memory of men is never lit up and illuminated like my memory of women. Betty Fernandez.... She's made in such a way, face and body, that anything that touches her shares immediately and infallibly in her beauty."
page
67
December 3, 2015
–
92.31%
"Departures... Always the first departure over the sea. People have always left the land in the same sorrow and despair, but that never stopped men from going, Jews, philosophers, and pure travelers for the journey's own sake. Nor did it ever stop women letting them go, the women who never went themselves, who stayed behind to look after the birthplace, the race, the property, the reason for the return."
page
108
December 3, 2015
–
100.0%
"perhaps my first truly "soulful" book, as the author does seem to pour her soul into this"
page
117
December 3, 2015
– Shelved as:
read-2015
December 3, 2015
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-34 of 34 (34 new)
date
newest »
message 1:
by
Cateline
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Feb 21, 2015 08:06AM
reply
|
flag
Thank you Dolors. You are such a master of impressionistic writing that I am very pleased that my review captured the book well for you.
I had never read it before and it certainly held strong for my 67 year old self. I think perhaps I should try something else of hers too some day.
It's a short book, Renato but not linear. It might be good during breaks from Pynchon!
Thanks Seemita. I look forward to your thoughts as you read it.
Thank you so much Himanshu. I'm very glad to have finally read it. Such a different book and so differently constructed but so well done.
Thanks Cateline
I'm coming over Nicole. I didn't want to learn anything about this book until I'd finished.
Many thanks, Jaidee. It was definitely a very good experience for me.
Yeah, this is a terrific little book. I'm glad we both got to read it this year!
Yeah, this is a terrific little book. I'm glad we both got to read it this y..."
I am too, especially as it wasn't on my list at all!! That would have been a major omission on my part.
For me too. Even if I read until I'm about 100, I can't read all I would like so I'll enjoy what I can as I can. That's why I no longer care how huge my tbr gets. It's become a list of possibilities not probabilities.
Thank you Diane. I'll be interested in your thoughts.