She often dresses provocatively - aР’В threadbare silk dress that is sleeveless and low-cut, with a leather belt, gold lame high heels and a manРІР‚в„ўs Fedora hat - because she feels confident in these kinds of clothes.Р’В Yet she realises this attire makes the РІР‚Сљgirl look so strangely, so weirdly dressedРІР‚Сњ and РІР‚Сљmight make people laughРІР‚Сњ.Р”В«ut itР’В is exactly this outfit that catches the eye of theР’В Chinese financier, who later becomes her lover. This hardens HР“В©lР“РЃne, who blames this lack of care for the death of her younger brother, who succumbs to pneumonia, and it also makes her ashamed.Р”Р‡rom the outset, itРІР‚в„ўs clear that HР“В©lР“РЃne isР’В unsure of her own identity. TheР’В daughter does not thinkР’В she isР’В good at mathematics, but she excels at French and wants to be a writer.Р”В«ut thatРІР‚в„ўs not the only strain in their relationship.Р’В The mother often goes through periods of despair - I suspect an undiagnosed clinical depression -Р’В and locks herself away, despondent and unable to properly care for her family. In the novel, the narrator, who effortlesslyР’В flicks between first andР’В third person, has a strained relationship with her mother, who wants her daughter to do well at school, to get an education and to study mathematics. Duras also claimed to have been beaten by her mother and her older brother. But things did not go well: her father quickly returned to France, where he died soon after, and her mother, a school teacher, made a bad property investment in the colony, which mired them in poverty. ItРІР‚в„ўs largely based on the authorРІР‚в„ўs own life - sheР’В was born in Saigon (nowР’В Ho Chi Minh City) to French parents who had emigrated there to work inР’В the French colony. The Lover is narrated by HР“В©lР“РЃne Lagonelle, a French woman looking back on her life in Indochina (now Vietnam) and, in particular, the romance she had with a wealthy Chinese man in 1929 when she was just 15. I read it back to back with another (supposedly) sensual novel, the (rather horrid) Hausfrau by Jill AlexanderР’В Essbaum, and they couldnРІР‚в„ўt be further apart - in mood, style or sheer literary power - even though they covered similar (sexual) territory. So begins Marguerite DurasРІР‚в„ў The Lover, an evocative and sensual novel about a young girlРІР‚в„ўs affair with a man 12 years her senior, which was first published in 1984. Rather than your face as a young woman, I prefer your face as it is now. Everyone says you were beautiful when you were young, but I want to tell you I think youРІР‚в„ўre more beautiful now than then. He introduced himself and said: РІР‚СљIРІР‚в„ўve known you for years. One day, I was already old, in the entrance of a public place a man came up to me. Translated fromР’В the French by Barbara Bray. Fiction РІР‚вЂњ Kindle edition Harper Perennial 130 pages 2006.

The lover duras plot