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26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Compelling Novel of Memory and Eroticism, May 2, 2002
In 1984, Marguerite Duras won the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, for her short novel, "The Lover". That novel told the simple story of an adolescent French girl living in Vietnam in the 1930s. She meets an older Chinese man who becomes her lover. It is a sparely written novel, shifting in time and narrative perspective, often difficult to follow. It is also a novel charged with memory, yearning and erotic feeling. "The North China Lover", written several years later and published in an English edition in 1992, is a kind of extension of the earlier novel, written with much more detail, inhabiting the interstices of "The Lover". Like its precursor, "The North China Lover" tells a powerful tale of love between the twenty-seven year old Chinese man and the barely teen-aged girl whom he meets on a ferry crossing the Mekong River. Once again, neither the Chinese man nor the girl has a name. However, unlike the earlier novel, many of the other characters are identified and the narrative of "The North China Lover" is considerably more detailed. Originally written as notes for a screenplay of "The Lover", the narrative of "The North China Lover" is episodic, described by one reviewer as having the "grainy, filmic qualities of a documentary." It is also more linear in its story line, easier to follow than the earlier novel, but still characterized by the nouveau roman influences that permeate Marguerite Duras' writing. "The North China Lover", like its precursor, is a compelling work of memory, eroticism and yearning that, in true Duras style, conflates literary imagination and biography. Read it slowly, languorously savor its eroticism, and let it linger in your mind long after you've closed the book.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Duras' captures keen detail in this follow-up to The Lover., November 11, 1998
By A Customer
After first reading The Lover in my freshman year of college English course, Marguerite Duras' sporatic yet detailed writing ability left me hungry for more of her work. A caution to unprepared readers, though, the author's train of thought is somewhat confusing but a very pleasurable experience, overall. If you get to love her unique style of writing as much as I do, you will be hooked on this story of passion for life. The North China Lover explores a deeper account, as first explained in Duras' The Lover, of the passionate affair carried on by "the child" and her "Chinese lover" in 1920s Indochina. Duras pays particular attention to addressing the mother and the two brothers of the child, forcing the reader to question whether the child allows her lover to take her sex for money or pure passion. This autobiography of Duras' early years could be described as a real twist of fate in true Romeo and Juliet style. The Chinese lover could never marry the child because his traditional, wealthy father would never permit it, and it is in this suffering the child realizes his only real worthiness is in his captivating lovemaking. The child knows she will never marry her lover, and it is this truth which keeps Duras' character entranced with this mysterious man until her death years later in France. If you like the book, look for Arnaud's film version of "The Lover" which starred Jane March and Tony Leung.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Compelling Novel of Memory, Eroticism and Yearning, March 23, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The North China Lover: A Novel (Paperback)
In 1984, Marguerite Duras won the Prix Goncourt, France's most prestigious literary award, for her short novel, "The Lover". That novel told the simple story of an adolescent French girl living in Vietnam in the 1930s. She meets an older Chinese man who becomes her lover. It is a sparely written novel, shifting in time and narrative perspective, often difficult to follow. It is also a novel charged with memory, yearning and erotic feeling. "The North China Lover", written several years later and published in an English edition in 1992, is a kind of extension of the earlier novel, written with much more detail, inhabiting the interstices of "The Lover". Like its precursor, "The North China Lover" tells a powerful tale of love between the twenty-seven year old Chinese man and the barely teen-aged girl whom he meets on a ferry crossing the Mekong River. Once again, neither the Chinese man nor the girl has a name. However, unlike the earlier novel, many of the other characters are identified and the narrative of "The North China Lover" is considerably more detailed. Originally written as notes for a screenplay of "The Lover", the narrative of "The North China Lover" is episodic, described by one reviewer as having the "grainy, filmic qualities of a documentary." It is also more linear in its story line, easier to follow than the earlier novel, but still characterized by the nouveau roman influences that permeate Marguerite Duras' writing. "The North China Lover", like its precursor, is a compelling work of memory, eroticism and yearning that, in true Duras style, conflates literary imagination and biography. Read it slowly, languorously savor its eroticism, and let it linger in your mind long after you've closed the book.
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