Customer Reviews
Is This An Erotic Novel? - By: Well Read, 21 May 2008 
A translation, this dark self-absorbed short novel is classic Duras. Frequently referred to as an erotic novel, The Lover falls short of that. The novel is much more than the story of a young girlin French Indochina (Vietnam), & her first lover, an older wealthy local man. Duras tells a darker tale of emerging adolescent sexual power & selfishness, a mother-daughter relationship, & the taboos inherentin colonialism & foreignness.
The Lover was awarded the French Goncourt prizein 1984. The strength of the novel isin the underlying despair of the narrator's triangulated memories. The narrative voice the reader hears is of an older woman reflecting on her past. Duras, when writing the novel, drew upon certain aspects from her childhoodin Saigon. She was also an experimental writer with an alcohol problem. Her writing style is pared to the bone.
In 1992 the film version of The Lover, was very successful. The eroticismin the film appears to have become a popular misconceptionin relation to the book. This particular publication has a reader introduction to Duras, her writing style, her early lifein French Indochina. I highly recommend the film available on DVD.
dull - By: f100, 09 Apr 2008 
I agree with the title ghastly drivel. found it tedious & certainly not erotic. very disappointing
Ghastly drivel - By: The Reviewer, 27 Oct 2007 This was far & away the worst book I've read this year (if not ever). From a male perspective it was boring, confusing & stupid with a completely unsympathetic heroine. The only redeeming feature was that being so short (and yet so expensive??) the pain of reading this book came to an end with merciful speed.
Also, was I the only one that thought the idea of an affair between a rich Chinese man & a fifteen year old girl slightly dodgy evenin those times?
I'm going to recycle my copy straight away so some good may come of the paper - never was there such a waste of trees as when this book was published.
pure poetry - By: Catherine AA, 12 Feb 2007 
I have read this book more than once & become transported every time to the exotic Indochina & the searing romance between the young girl & the chinese man of the title. Even more beguiling than this are the tales of festering colonialism as the girl rages at her brother & mother for making her endure the poverty & shame of being both white & poor. This is a very complex book which is easy to read thanks to the style of ms Duras' writing, that of flowing poetry.
One of the best books I've ever read - By: , 30 Nov 2004 I chanced across this book when waiting for some female friends who went to see <
> at the cinema. I finished book just as the film finished. I'm glad I read this book rather than saw that film. A flow of consciousness embeddedin romantic fatalism. Very feminine writing. It took me on a journey of youthful experimentation, of not quite knowing but knowing, of cultural conflicts, of the exotic Indo-Chinain that colonial era of a faded dusty yellowness.
Strongly recommended to all those who enjoy the writing of V Nabokov.
