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From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

The Lover

Marguerite Duras,

Maxine Hong Kingston (Introduction),

Barbara Bray (Translator)

Start date: December 1, 2015

Finish date: December 15, 2015

Discussion: Classics Corner

Discussion leader: Nicole

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Classics Corner

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What Members Thought

Jun 17, 2025 William rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2025

A book unique in many ways. Based on the author’s own experience as a young girl but not precisely autobiographical. Very cinematic in the way it shifts scenes, time frames tenses, and between the first and third person and is told in short paragraphs.
The writing is descriptive and beautiful. The imagery is similarly vividly described. Themes of coming-of-age, power as it is expressed in sexual relationships, colonialism, race and social norms, family dysfunction and the meaning of love and desi ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 Jane rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction, one-of-a-kind, reading-for-a-second-time, family-story, womans-story, my-own-books, coming-of-age-novel

I’ve read this at least twice now, maybe three times. The writing is beautiful. It depicts families destroyed by abandonment, by ethnicity, by poverty. Most of the book takes place in Vietnam, Saigon, specifically. I remember the images from the movie, more than the words from the novel. The novel is so much more complex. Utterly heart breaking, ruthless. A young Chinese man sees a beautiful young girl on a ferry and is immediately taken with her. Later she sees him in a fancy expensive car. He ...more

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Jul 28, 2008 Inder rated it it was ok

Shelves: southeast-asia, fiction, 1001-books, 20th-century, read-2009, colonial-postcolonial, other-reading-2009

I am bit torn about this one. This is a well-written, lyrical little novella, and quite lovely in many respects. But it's about a 15-year-old, emotionally stunted, French girl who has grown up in Indochina, absolutely hates her mother, and basically prostitutes herself to a Chinese businessman who has no personality. And other than that, it has no plot. It's beautifully written, but it's also really bleak, and frankly, a little boring. The subject matter was emotional and psychological death, an ...more

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