The Sea Wall [Paperback]

Marguerite Duras (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, French (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 3rd edition (August 1, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374519455
• ISBN-13: 978-0374519452
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,854,254 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Sea Wall, October 19, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sea Wall (Paperback)

The Sea Wall is a fine example of Duras' cinematic and romantic writing style. Like The Lover, this novel is semi-autobiographical, and is set in French colonial Indochine.It is the story of a poor widow's desperate fight against the world she is trapped in, exemplified by the sea wall she constructs to stop the yearly encroachment of the sea on her useless concession of land. Although her efforts are futile, she bravely, or sometimes absurdly, maintains hope in the midst of poverty and her children's growing restlessness.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Struggles of Colonial life in French IndoChina, March 6, 2001

By 

Zander (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Sea Wall (Paperback)

Duras wrote this novel right in the middle of France's struggle with the war of independence in Indochina. That is where this novel takes place. It is a compelling, well illstrated, and masterfully composed piece of writing that is actually semi-autobiographical (many events of Duras' life appear as events in the novel). It is based upon a family's constant struggle with the endless difficulties with life in the country and their many and frequent bouts with the constant desperation that is portrayed throught the entire course of the book. It is a wonderful book to read and (undoubtedly) enjoy.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Sea Wall Revisited, February 9, 2009

By 

Clair Sheehan (Ireland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Sea Wall (Paperback)

Duras' 3rd novel 'The Sea Wall' revisits her own past and appears to be again autobiograpical. For those familiar with her best known work 'The Lover' it runs to a similar postcolonial format. She is believed to have written 'The Sea Wall' first and waited for her family to be gone before she could attempt to tell the truth about her youth, which, she claimed to have done in 'The Lover'. While I found 'The Sea Wall' interesting the novel did not move as smoothly as her other work and was less satisfiying in it's outcome. But as a French postcolonial text with a feminist leaning, it is very interesting especially from a comparative perspective.