No More [Hardcover]

Marguerite Duras (Author), Richard Howard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 6, 1998

Sex, and death. All of Marguerite Duras's writings are suffused with the certitude that absolute love is both necessary (sex) ... and impossible to achieve (death). But no book of hers embodies this idea so powerfully, so excessively, as No More (C'est Tout), the book she composed during the last year of her life until just days before her death. No More is literature shorn of all its niceties, a shout from the depths of Duras's being, celebrating life in defiance of the death she knew had already entered her immediate future. In part, it is also Duras' raucous salutation welcoming death. No More is a collection of words as pure as poetry and as full-throated as a fish-wife's call to market her wares, a disturbing and lasting challenge to any reader.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

MARGUERITE DURAS is one of the towering figures in 20th century French literature. Author of of over 73 books, mostly novels (including The Vice-Consul, The English Lover, The North China Lover, and the bestselling The Lover), but also original screenplays such as India Song and Hiroshima Mon Amour, which won the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Award, and memoirs including The War. About Marguerite Duras Germaine Brée has written, "Love, the fierceness of love, the happiness, the pain, the compelling and destructive power of love is Marguerite Duras's essential theme.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Seven Stories Press; 1 edition (October 6, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1888363657
• ISBN-13: 978-1888363654
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,111,829 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars an honest(?)look at impending death, March 8, 2000

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: No More (Hardcover)

This book's greatest values are (a) a look into the mind of a great author approaching death and (b) an interesting writing style ... Duras with a touch of Jabes! Duras approaches death with an honest mix of human emotions - sometimes very attached to Yann, sometimes reconciled to death as the ultimate letting go of Yann; sometimes proud and nearly pretentious regarding her writings, sometimes humbly expecting to be soon forgotten. Unlike some authors writing in similiar straits, Duras feels no need to pretend that age has made her wise. Rather she reflects as if age has only made her experienced.

If you've not read Duras and have no particular interest in human reaction to impending death, read several Duras books before reading No More but at some point read No More - it is time well spent.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Like watching a car crash...., October 14, 1998

By 

Eddie Pereira - See all my reviews

This review is from: No More (Hardcover)

A morbid attraction to the dying words of a great writer that fails greatly here. Occasionaly there are glimpses of her past greatness but most of the book is full of nonsense such as like: "I've never been pretentious.", "Both of us are innocents" (Refering to her 29 year old lover and her in her 80's (?)), "I don't know how to add. All I know how to do is create."

This very short work is followed by an essay that has some insight but mostly it's serious prose that sounds weighter than it really is. It is written by Christiane Blot-Labarrere who is (according to the book) "among the very few whose writtings were respected by Duras."

This is the type of book many creative writting students are writting and it is an example of why many intellgent readers do not read "serious books." Pick up the Lover instead to see this woaman's greatness.