Marguerite Duras

[SpaceOddity]

Who loves her? Fave books? Quotes?

[Melville]

The only thing I've read by her is The Lover. I really liked the dreamy atmosphere of memories fleetingly recalled. What else of hers should I read?

[[ETM]]

I love her because she always reminds me of Klingons...

[Melville]

I love her because she always reminds me of Klingons...

I must be missing a reference...

After a bit more thought, it occurs to me that my favorite thing about The Lover is how it extends a "moment," the mood of an event, a particular time and place, into a whole novel. It reminds me of Once and In Search of Lost Time.

[[ETM]]

I must be missing a reference...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Duras

[Melville]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Duras

That link just blew my mind.

[SpaceOddity]

The only thing I've read by her is The Lover. I really liked the dreamy atmosphere of memories fleetingly recalled. What else of hers should I read?

Everything. *nods* The Ravishing of Lol Stein and Summer Rain are my favourites. Emily L. is worth reading for her letter alone:

I've forgotten the words with which to tell you. I knew them once, but I've forgotten them, and now I'm talking to you without them. Unlikely as it may seem, I'm not the sort of woman who gives herself up body and soul to the love of one person, even the person who's dearest to her in the whole world. I am someone who's unfaithful. I wish I could find the words I laid aside to tell you that. And now some of them are coming back to me. I wanted to tell you what I think, which is that one always ought to keep oneself a place, yes, that's the word, a private place, where one can be alone and love. To love one knows not what, nor whom, nor how, nor for how long. To love ... now all the words are suddenly coming back ... To set aside a place inside oneself to wait, you never know, to wait for a love, perhaps for a love without a person attached to it yet, but for that and only that. For love. I wanted to tell you you were what I had waited for. You alone became the outer surface of my life, the side I never see, and you will be that, the unknown part of me until I die. Don't ever answer this. And please don't hope to see me.

[Llopin]

Actually she's rather boring. I've read a few books and she tends to be awfully redundant. Well written perhaps, but a tad reiterative and pretentious. That said, L'amant is a wonderful little novel, the only of hers that I have really enjoyed.

[jesse]

While The Lover was my first and still my favorite (I'm feeling the urge to pick it up again this afternoon), the script to Hiroshima mon amour comes really close. It's just as beautiful as any of her work and it is a good indication that the film can be considered as much hers as Resnais's.

The only others I've read are the early novels The Square (which I liked for its formalistic qualities) and Moderato Cantabile, which clearly shows the development of her style.

I've started Lol Stein twice and stopped within the first 50 pages both times. Nothing against the novel itself though--it's beautifully written, as always--but I like to be in a very specific, dreamy kind of mood when I read her.

...

It's really a shame that Duras's own films aren't more widely available--if they were more well known she'd probably be considered as revolutionary a filmmaker as a writer. India Song is justifiably the most famous, but my personal favorite is La Navire Night (maybe the presence of Dominique Sanda gives it the edge...).

And for anybody interested, the film Cette amour-la starring Jeanne Moreau from a few years back is a really interesting little dramatization about a life-changing love affair late in Duras's life. The film version of The Lover, on the other hand is guilty of being an unpalatable, pretentious piece of shit, a charge some manage to level against the author herself.

[Melville]

The Ravishing of Lol Stein

Well, the title sounds promising. I'll look into it.